Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

Yuri rummaged through his pockets and pulled out the spirit material.

Fortunately, he didn't remember he had such a thing during the battle; if he had been aware of its existence, it would probably have already been swallowed as spiritual essence by now.

This piece of spiritual energy has shrunk by half compared to the last time I saw it. It's unclear whether Yuri accidentally absorbed it or it has become more solid. After observing it, it seems to be a combination of both.

"What do you need this for? Isn't transferring the anchor point something the spirit can do on its own?"

“Of course, a spirit can transfer its anchor point on its own, but it’s not without conditions,” Mingmei answered Yuri’s question while trying to align the spirit block and the puppet. “There are only two possibilities. First, maintaining multiple anchor points simultaneously. This is something that only a stronger spirit can do, and it consumes a lot of resources. Does it look like that to you?”

Before Yuri could react, the root carving spirit had already begun to shake rhythmically.

Judging from the gesture, he should be shaking his head.

"The second option is to first disconnect from the first anchor point, and then establish contact with another preparatory anchor point before leaving the material world and being exiled back to the homeland. This option has lower requirements, but is riskier."

In addition, Yuri added in his mind that, given the state of this root carving friend, he would probably return to the Shadow Realm as soon as he severed the connection with the anchor point.

So neither of these methods can be used. Yuri takes a step back, makes room, and waits for Akemi to perform.

Even a powerful fire spirit, without being severely beaten, has to constantly absorb spiritual essence to maintain its physical form. This is because it lacks an anchor point to maintain its physical form and can only rely on its physical strength to advance.

In fact, Yuri suspected that the stronger the spirit, the greater its need for a suitable anchor point. It's just that their strength and accumulated experience allow them to better cope with situations without an anchor point, making them seem more at ease.

Essentially, it's because the growth rate of power exceeds the growth rate of the demand for anchor points, not because there isn't enough demand for anchor points.

Although there is no way to confirm it at the moment, you can ask a kind and approachable high-level spirit.

Yuri stepped aside and watched Akemi perform the ritual.

A power emanated from Mingmei, and then, in Yuri's vision, the spiritual energy was slowly attaching to the puppet. Soon, Mingmei raised her head and pushed the puppet towards the root carving.

"Is this enough?"

Yuri thought it was too easy and asked a question, but neither Mingmei nor Gendiao seemed inclined to answer him.

The root carving extended a tentacle and pressed it onto the doll. The sense of power emanating from Mingmei reappeared, as if she had given the root carving a helping hand.

Then, on the doll, Yuri saw a spiritual aura similar to that of the root carving.

This should work.

“That’s good. I’ve created a temporary anchor point for you. Once you disconnect from the old anchor point, you can switch to this new one.”

"The reason for using that spirit block is that it also comes from a wood spirit, so its attributes are suitable?" Yuri felt he understood.

"...Actually, as long as they are not particularly incompatible, it will be fine. The reason for using that spiritual substance block is that you two both look like you have exhausted your spiritual essence, and your bodies are starting to become transparent."

Was it really that obvious? Yuri felt a chill run down his spine. It seemed like this was a huge gamble. If the attack failed, he would probably lose his fighting ability immediately and could only struggle to escape with the last bit of energy left by instinct.

If he could still escape that way... Yuri forced himself to stop his terrible fantasies.

Fortunately, we won in the end. Now it's time to gather information from our new spirit friends to make decisions about the future.

Chapter 71 The Perspective of the Spirit

"Please repeat what you felt at that time."

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"Is it like this? Or like that? Are there differences? How about this?"

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"If things had turned out this way, what do you think would have happened? Or what if they had?"

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Have you heard about the recent cases of spirits being murdered? Really not?

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"Have you heard of the one in the station? Is that all you know?"

…………

Since he had plenty of time, Yuri simply asked about everything that happened within the entire timeframe of the incident.

If Mingmei hadn't come up with a way to maintain the anchor point of the root carving, given its communication speed, this really wouldn't have been possible.

Halfway through the questioning, the sun began to rise, and Mingmei decided to leave as soon as possible. According to her plan, she moved her motorcycle to a more distant place to wait for Yuri to meet her.

The reason for doing this is that as dawn breaks, traces of the place may be discovered. The water stains on the ground outside, the broken windows of the house, and the mess inside (which is basically entirely from water spilled by someone) could all attract attention and even call the police. If Akemi is still nearby at this time, it will be very troublesome.

Yuri and Root Carving, being two spirits, don't have to worry about that much. Even if the police kick down the door and come in, they can continue communicating with each other as if no one else is around.

The police didn't come, but Yuri couldn't say that America's preparations were in vain.

Based on the fragmented descriptions from the root carving's spirit, Yuri gleaned a great deal of information. —Yuri ingeniously devised a way to communicate directly with the root carving using its spirit language, but the root carving subsequently proved that its spirit language was also fragmented, likely a habit rather than a limitation of its speaking ability.

In short, a lot of information.

First, a few days earlier at midnight, the spirit friend also sensed the fluctuations of "something," and its reaction was much stronger than Yuri's. Yuri only felt uncomfortable for a few minutes, while it felt completely activated.

Yes, it was activated. It felt full of energy, as if it were in the Shadow Realm and had no other spirits to share it with. It felt an urge to rush to the scene—but ultimately did not.

Because it requires a lot of effort to move its anchor point, and it also has to abandon the spiritual field it barely occupies—this house can't really be called a spiritual vein, but for a spirit like it that is closely related to humans, it is a place where it is easier to obtain spiritual essence from human activities.

Yuri compared it to the concept in his mind, which was roughly equivalent to a ghost staying in a place that is often remembered by people. Although there would be no direct production of spiritual essence, it would greatly help in the normal acquisition of spiritual essence.

Not every spirit is like that fire spirit, daring to go unchecked without a fixed anchor point, eating and eating along the way without caring about what's behind them. At least the root carving spirit in front of us is a self-reliant one.

Like Yuri, this feeling of "activation" did not last, but disappeared within an hour. Yuri repeatedly confirmed whether it was possible that spirits were more sensitive to it, so the effect was more lasting, and the answer was that it was indeed possible.

Then, as it was observing its surroundings due to its activation, it noticed that a large number of little spirits were running around, with mouse spirits being the most numerous.

Yuri recalled the information given by several ghosts, which seemed to match the phenomenon described by the root carving.

According to the root carving, these little spirits are basically acting like animals in a daze. They may not even have come to the material world from the shadow realm on their own initiative. They are too weak, so the barriers between realms have little effect on them. They may have fallen into the material world after wandering around.

They find it difficult to survive in this world for long, and even more difficult to establish a connection with their corresponding anchor point. For them, there are many things that can serve as anchor points, but connecting to them is very difficult. Some small spirits can sustain themselves in suitable spiritual fields by constantly acquiring spiritual essence, while those who, whether through effort or luck, find a suitable anchor point and can shift the direction of spiritual essence from maintaining themselves to strengthening themselves, have embarked on the road to success.

There are indeed many spirits in the city of Tokyo, but there are even more spirits in the film industry. If you can gain a foothold here, it is equivalent to escaping the brutal competition in the film industry. This is why once spirits settle down, they will not easily give up their position.

When Yuri heard this, he sensed a sense of pride in the words of the root carving spirit, indicating that it too belonged to the group that had traversed such a path.

Yuri wisely refrained from reminding his root carving friend that it had almost been killed again. Pointing out the current dire situation while someone is reminiscing about the past is hardly a wise move.

Generally speaking, these little spirits either disappear quickly or gather in the spirit field area that has been hard to find. If there are too many of them, they will start to fight each other, so they shouldn't be running around all over the streets.

However, the root carving friend did witness this scene. It deduced that something happened in the Shadow Realm while it was feeling energetic for some unknown reason. A large number of little spirits ran out of the Shadow Realm and, still unaware of everything, began to run around randomly.

To bolster its persuasiveness, it also mentioned that when one of its bird spirit friends visited, the two discussed the matter.

Yuri came up with a good idea. He interrupted the root carving and asked about the places where the bird spirit often frequented and the direction in which it saw the little spirit moving.

It took root carving quite a bit of effort to remember the approximate location... or perhaps he was making up a place that wouldn't reveal his friend's location but wouldn't be considered a lie. Yuri didn't care; either way would work.

Mark the three places in your mind where you mention the little spirit.

The original Black World gang, the location of the root carving spirit here, the approximate location of the bird spirit it provided, and then, according to the direction of the spirit's movement they said, connect the lines and extend them.

The three lines converge at one point. There may be some error, but it can be said that they converge at the same point.

I quickly noted down the general location and then continued my conversation with the root carving.

According to what was said after the root carving.

After a while, it sensed something was wrong, so it hid at home and strengthened its defenses. (It had no effect when the fire spirit broke in, but it might have given Yuri a good beating if he was caught off guard.)

Yuri said that the fire spirit kept attacking the ordinary spirits along the way, basically attacking them all the way, and asked the root carving friend if he felt this.

The response was somewhat vague.

The root carving enthusiast believes that it doesn't have such a wide range of perception that it could not possibly sense the specific behavior of the fire spirit, so this should just be a premonition of an impending disaster.

Yuri suspected it was simply because it was cowardly.

In short, it stayed at home for a while after that, only seeing its bird spirit friend once more, when the bird spirit friend seemed to be preparing to move.

Then... the Fire Spirit and Yuri kicked the door open and came in one after the other.

In reality, it had no idea that spirits were being killed one after another. Its bird spirit friend had only told it that things seemed a bit chaotic lately and that it should be careful.

However, the Fire Spirit's attack pattern is very skilled. It rushes in and starts fighting without any hesitation. If the Fire Spirit were to indiscriminately attack ordinary spirits, the root carving friend would have no objection.

Before Yuri and his duo appeared to save the day, the Fire Spirit didn't bother to communicate with it and went straight to action, so it was quite impressed that Yuri was able to drag that ferocious guy into a conversation that involved thinking.

Of course, it would be even better if we didn't lose in the end, my friend who specializes in root carving added.

Yuri was unsure whether to say, "You overestimate me; you mainly suffered because you were restrained," or "Although my carelessness led to us getting tricked, the outcome was good." Neither seemed quite right.

So in the end, Yuri could only respond with an awkward smile.

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.

Yuri kept asking until he reached the most crucial point in time: "now".

The root carving friend clearly didn't have the ability to predict the future, so asking further questions was pointless.

However, if we miss this opportunity, we can't just make another trip next time...

"By the way, do you remember the 'Tokyo Guardian Cult,' that human cult?" He asked casually.

"What, an organization?"

Yuri gestured and described the cult's usual attire, as well as the general appearance of the leader and senior officers.

"No, I've never seen it."

Hmm... so their activity range is actually quite small?

Then another question.

"What do you know about that thing at the station?"

The answer this time is yes.

According to my friend who specializes in root carving, the spirit in the station is of a very high level—so high that there's no need for special restraint; a casual swing can inflict damage similar to a direct hit from a calamity on a low-level spirit like it.

Fortunately, it has a very good temper. As long as you don't provoke it or cause a lot of damage in its controlled area, it won't attack other weaklings running around in front of you.

At the same time, it seemed quite busy and was not very friendly to the spirits that bothered it. Although there were no reports of spirits being attacked by it for asking for help, spirits that were truly desperate and asked it for help rarely received real assistance.

In short, they hold a superior position and do not like to interfere with lower-level spirits.

Yuri noticed that his friend who was carving roots had not described the other person's specific appearance, so he made a confirmation.

The conclusion is that the root carving friend never intended to meet this powerful figure who occupied an important spiritual vein node; the information it knew was gradually gleaned from other spirits over the past ten years.

Moreover, since spirit chatter usually doesn't go in this direction, that's all it knows.

Yuri was disappointed to find that, apart from describing the carver as "very big," "very fast," and "very strong," his friend had no specific knowledge of the wealthy client.

Huge, fast, strong—the image of a towering giant appeared in Yuri's mind.

In short, if you don't know, you just don't know; there's no way to turn that into knowing.

It's time to leave and see Akemi.

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.

Before meeting Akemi, Yuri mentally made a list of what he could gain.

First, we gained a clearer understanding of "where it all started".

Secondly, I gained a deeper understanding of that unknown "big spender".

Secondly, I heard about "that person," but there was basically no information about them, which can be understood as "this matter is not over yet."

Finally, there will be no more spontaneous combustion incidents for the time being—as Mingmei said, the volunteers who emerged from human society have solved the problem... at least initially solved it.

It would be even better if this volunteer wasn't Yuri himself.

As for the cost schedule...

Yuri's essence is completely depleted, and Mingmei's equipment is damaged.

Yuri was surprised to find that the price seemed rather light.

No, no, no, no, he quickly re-examined himself. He couldn't ignore the multiple crises that had occurred before just because the outcome was good, especially since he hadn't even figured out exactly how the problems had been solved...

Add this to the harvest list and record it as "Discovered that I have some special abilities that can be used after paying a very large amount of spiritual essence".

Mingmei and her motorcycle went into a side alley, and Yuri walked nearly a kilometer in the direction she had told him before before finding her, almost thinking he had gone too far.

Why did you go so far away?

“I don’t know how I, someone so suspicious and covered in water—and possibly with shards of glass—can explain myself as having nothing to do with this if the police come.”