Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

That makes a lot of sense. Yuri put the matter aside and began to discuss his conclusions with Akemi.

"Is this your conclusion?" Akemi looked a little disappointed.

"What are you disappointed about?" Yuri looked back somewhat guiltily.

"No, it's not that your summary is bad, it's that I had too many wishful thinkings. What if you came up with something really powerful—anyway, what were we supposed to do next?"

Good question. The original plan was to run away if we couldn't win, but in order to protect our intelligence sources, we ended up accidentally eliminating our investigation target... So what's next?

Yuri thought about it for a while, but it seemed there weren't many options.

"How are you feeling?" First, determine if Mingmei has enough energy to conduct further exploration.

As Yuri spoke, he glanced at Akemi's hand, wondering if she had twisted it or something similar, perhaps from using too much force while opening the fire hydrant...

"I basically didn't expend any energy, did you forget? I had a brief exchange with the Fire Pillar, and then we haven't had any contact since." Akemi looked back with a puzzled expression.

How many times have I worried about this abnormal human being when I shouldn't have?

“Very well, since you have no questions, let’s head straight to the rendezvous point. This time we really can only take a look, but if my imagination is not mistaken, that area is where our prime suspect is located.”

That's right. Although this intersection point should be quite large, and the area is definitely not limited to the location Yuri thought of, it does include the gathering place of the cultists.

Once was an accident, twice was a coincidence, but how many clues had pointed to that cult yet? These clues didn't directly point to the cult members, but Yuri didn't believe they were unrelated to them.

Chapter Seventy-Two: The House Is Empty

In the early morning, the flow of people and vehicles gradually increases, and Mingmei cannot speed up as recklessly as she does at night.

After arriving near her target at a normal speed, she chose to stop and lock the car some distance from the residence.

Minmei thought the roar might attract unnecessary attention, while Yuri thought it might cause a loss of maneuverability in the event of an accident.

If we keep thinking like this, it will never end. Mingmei's opinion is certainly very reasonable, but what is even more reasonable is the speed at which she made her decision.

Sometimes, Yuri really dislikes his overly broad associative abilities.

Yuri floated ahead, while Akemi followed cautiously.

The two cautiously approached the private residence.

It may look quiet, but even quiet places can harbor dangers.

Yuri pointed to himself, then to the house, indicating that he would go in first, and Akemi nodded in response.

—Then after a while, Yuri came out after walking around.

"I didn't find anyone; they must have all run away," Yuri said somberly.

"They ran away? Not a single one left? Are you sure they didn't go out on an operation?" Mingmei tried to confirm Yuri's observations.

“It’s starting to collect dust—it looks thin, but it wasn’t today, or last night. —At the latest, it was yesterday during the day.” Yuri’s mood grew even heavier, because he had found out why the cultists had fled.

“It must be Hojo’s doing—the cultists aren’t that stupid. They realized Hojo had run away, that their location had been exposed and they were being watched, so they hurriedly ran away. Damn it, what was I doing at this time yesterday?” Yuri began to review his actions in his mind.

Oh right, it was about watching TV at home to confirm whether the reporter's information was accurate, and reciting the Tokyo Spirit Vein Map to try and confirm the other party's direction.

It can't be said that it's completely useless, but focusing on only one side results in losing the clues on the other side.

Think again, is there any way to continue tracking them? Should we follow the believers on the street again, tracing back to where they came from?

“…Ah, it might be my fault,” Mingmei’s eyes widened, then she too began to regret it. “I told the school that some classmates had fallen into the trap of a cult. This could very well lead to the police being called, and then the police will come. Whether they catch them or not, they might just have to move to another location…”

Unlike Yuri, Akemi spoke aloud.

"If that's the case, does that mean we don't need to worry anymore? They should all have been arrested by the police, right?" Yuri seemed to have a renewed sense of hope. Although, in reality, he had a feeling that this matter wouldn't end so easily.

“It’s hard to say. If that student takes all the blame and insists that he did it voluntarily and didn’t report his age, etc., then the police might just take him home alone.” Mingmei rubbed her forehead. “I didn’t expect that we would have to fight with cultists for a long time. I thought that we could get enough information from the arsonist anyway, but I didn’t expect that information would bring us back.”

To be fair, Yuri recounted his reporter's speculations, and the two sighed at each other.

Whatever the reason, the cultists are no longer here.

"Come on, let's go in and search carefully again!" Mingmei quickly rallied herself. "We can't come here for nothing. They must have left some clues. I don't believe they can completely erase all traces."

“The main concern is whether they will erase the traces we can recognize—I support your opinion, we can’t know without going in and taking a look.” Yuri wanted to argue that he hadn’t seen any particular traces, but he quickly realized that Akemi might see something he hadn’t noticed.

She should at least know more about the common knowledge of cult members.

The two men illegally broke into the private residence together.

Unauthorized intrusion, burglary, and potential damage to property, plus being a repeat offender... Yuri couldn't understand why the police hadn't come knocking yet, unless he had genuinely died from overwork—even the Japanese police should have reacted by now.

Perhaps it's because they're too obsessed with subjective clues? Yuri's observations of famous detectives in the newspapers generally suggest that they don't like to find concrete evidence through technical means, but rather prefer to break down the murderer's psychological defenses and make them confess on their own through situational judgment.

Yet another area he didn't understand, Yuri warned himself, not to burden himself with even bigger shackles before one thing was finished.

The room itself was not much different from when Yuri had been there before, but some of the insignia-adorned decorations were gone. Although it was an evacuation, the room was not chaotic; the people who left had likely tidied up a bit, probably planning when they would return.

This further reduced the possibility of them all being arrested and detained by the police in a raid.

After taking a couple more steps, Yuri realized that this also reduced the likelihood that the police had only arrested the leader. This cult didn't seem like the type to organize an evacuation after losing its leader. In other words, at the very least, some people should be left here bewildered and confused.

Very well, the best-case scenario has been ruled out first. Yuri should have thought of this earlier. When has he ever been this lucky?

"What are you doing?" Akemi's voice came from in front of me.

"Huh?" Yuri quickly regained his composure and shifted his attention back to the living room, which he had already watched twice and was about to watch a third time.

"Huh—what? Have you noticed any changes? You were here, not me, so only you can compare the changes." Akemi rattled off a string of words.

"No, nothing has changed." Yuri admitted his mistake to himself.

There really haven't been any significant changes.

The curtains had changed angle, which is normal; it's not the middle of the night. The vase had been moved slightly, which is also normal; someone had probably knocked it over and then hurriedly righted it. The stool originally prepared for the cult leader had, of course, been moved long ago, as had the cushions for the followers. The strange symbols drawn around the area where the cult leader performed his rituals remained unchanged. The ceiling was unchanged. The floor was unchanged, and there was no trash there either.

"So, these strange symbols are the same as the ones you saw back then?" Akemi pointed to the symbols drawn with strange paint on the wooden floor and confirmed it again.

“That’s right, nothing has changed—and I can’t feel any power either. My conclusion hasn’t changed; it’s still just a charade.” Yuri noticed that Akemi was observing these things quite seriously.

"What's wrong? Did I miss something? Are these actually genuine occult rituals?" It's not impossible that there are rituals that Yuri couldn't sense... Although Yuri thought it was unlikely, he could feel the cult leader pulling Hojo down, even though he couldn't categorize it.

“This ritual… I don’t think it has any effect, except to make it look powerful.” Mingmei spoke slowly, “But these symbols… I’ve seen them, these symbols should be real, in my father’s book.”

"Your father?" Yuri almost asked the stupid question, "You have a father?" He might have been so ashamed to the point of suicide if he had actually asked it.

Akemi certainly has a father, but she never mentions any relatives other than her grandfather. Without being offensive, Yuri could only speculate that something was wrong with Akemi's family.

We need to change the subject as soon as possible to prevent Mingmei from figuring something out. This is easy, but we need to be quick.

"What's written in the book?" That's what I decided on, and it was indeed related to this matter.

“That book described some rituals, which I secretly tested and had a slight effect, but my grandfather stopped me from doing it.” Mingmei tried hard to recall. “There were some symbols in it that were exactly the same as these symbols. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

Yuri looked at the symbols. Indeed, it was unlikely that the coincidences would be so distorted. These weren't the kind of symbols that started distorting in a supernatural way, like Yuri's Nemesis. Instead, they looked like strange combinations of strokes designed to make drawing more difficult for the artist.

"What is that ritual you mentioned for?" Yuri wondered, hoping it might be of some use.

“I’ll say this in advance: the methods of permutation and combination are completely different. In supernatural activities, it is normal for different permutations and combinations to produce opposite or completely unrelated effects—” Mingmei stopped and looked at Yuri, as if to make sure he understood.

Yuri nodded, so Akemi continued, "It was a summoning spell. I don't know what it summons, but it's said to grant your wishes to a certain extent. I was just playing around with it. After my grandfather pulled me away, I got a severe scolding. He said that the signal had been sent out, and it was lucky that I didn't get a response in a short time."

This sounded reasonable to Yuri, but he still wanted to confirm, "And that's it? Nothing really happened?"

“No, really. At the time, I thought Grandpa just didn’t like that I wasn’t studying hard, so he used this to scare me. Later, after I found out he wasn’t just a simple conman, I thought the ritual might be real, but I can’t remember if I actually followed every step in the book exactly.” Mingmei tried hard to recall.

That sounds... quite reasonable.

In short, take these symbols as real for now, but the ritual is mostly fake... It seems the person who drew the symbols on the ground was just using them to make themselves seem very mysterious.

The possibility that this is some kind of new ritual that neither Mingmei nor Yuri recognizes is small enough to be ignored, but it cannot be disregarded for now.

That concludes the search for the living room.

Then they went to the guest room, the basement, the kitchen, and the storage room, looking at each one one by one before finally going to the master bedroom.

It wasn't that the house was laid out this way, but an inexplicable urge compelled Yuri to put the most important items at the beginning and end. He could find some clever-sounding arguments, such as "this helps with concentration," but these weren't the reasons that prompted him to choose this order.

Fortunately, we don't lack time now, at least not this much.

The searches of the previous areas yielded no clear clues. Indeed, the lack of neatly made beds in the guest rooms suggested several people had been there, but this was something they already knew, and those people were long gone. Certainly, some items in the kitchen and storage room appeared to have been used to draw strange symbols on the floor, and other items weren't necessarily used for their ostensible, legitimate purposes, but there was no way to determine exactly what they had been used for.

Yuri forced himself to look at the things, but before he could quickly stop, he couldn't see anything special. His spiritual essence was limited, and he couldn't just hand over everything he saw.

Mingmei's mundane methods were quite effective. She found a portrait of a family of three in the storage room. After Yuri identified it, the male and female heads of the portrait had never appeared in Yuri's sight, but the female head of the portrait was among the believers at that time.

It seems this house was lent out by a member of the cult... if it wasn't sold. According to Mingmei, many people who join cults are willing to abandon their wives and children and give away all their possessions; I wonder to what extent this has gone.

Okay, we're in the master bedroom. Yuri told himself to be alert and attentive.

This is where the cult leader rests, so there might be some automatic defense measures in place. Last time, Yuri didn't go in to search because he was worried about something going wrong, and this is his first time here.

That's why Yuri bumped into a familiar-looking light membrane when he cautiously entered the bedroom.

In terms of protective strength, it was not as strong as the one at the bamboo village hut, but Yuri advanced cautiously this time. He instinctively pulled back after hitting something, and ended up taking a big step back in a state of self-inflicted fear.

Mingmei's concerned gaze fell on Yuri, causing a pang of pain in his competitive spirit.

Without further communication with Mingmei, Yuri took a step back and rammed into her again. This time, he used his strength and was prepared to suffer some losses. If this didn't work, he would have to continue drying the light membrane on the outside. Based on past experience, he figured this time shouldn't be too costly; Yuri really couldn't afford to waste any more time.

The worst-case scenario didn't occur. Yuri's impact damaged the structure of the light membrane, which disappeared as he entered. The cost was some physical injury, but not serious; the protection likely served more as an alarm system.

Yuri nervously looked around, but no second defensive mechanism jumped out to launch an attack.

In the gap between the two beds, roughly in the middle of the room, he saw a small ritual ring emanating the same spiritual aura as the light membrane; it seemed to be the source of the protection.

Or should it be called a circular ritual field? Something that even Yuri had seen in many occult rituals, the common feature of which is that the array looks like a circle.

More important than investigating the reason for the name is that the spiritual energy emanating from it is rapidly weakening.

Chapter Seventy-Three: Not All Satisfactory

Akemi followed in and, at Yuri's prompting, also saw the ritual ring.

She went up, fiddled with it for a bit, and announced that the ritual ring used to ward off spirits was rapidly losing power, probably because some spirit that had rushed in had broken its balance.

Putting that aside for now, the two began searching the entire house for any traces.

Ideally, one should find things like the cult leader's diary, the financial statements of high-ranking cult members, action plans, or marked calendars—even if they're password-protected, it'll do. Yuri, who can't engage in violence now, has plenty of time to try and crack the codes. But if those don't work, anything that points to the cultists can be used as a clue for analysis.

The first preliminary search is over. Nothing particularly convenient was found, not even a piece of paper with writing on it.

If the cult members left voluntarily, they might have taken the key items with them.

Or did they hide it?

Taking advantage of his spirit form, Yuri began to move among the various pieces of furniture, searching for any hidden compartments.

There were some hidden compartments, but they were all empty.

Yuri wasn't quite sure whether these were hidden compartments or if the furniture was designed that way, but he didn't need to worry too much about the empty ones.

After checking again, I found nothing written on the "hidden compartment," so it seems it really has no value.

Yuri turned around and saw that Mingmei was studying the ritual ring intently, or at least she seemed to be doing it very well.

Yuri had also come into contact with the ritual ring, but it was meaningless; the ritual ring was made of lime powder.

"Can you understand it?" Yuri asked, somewhat curious. He'd wanted to ask this question for a while. He basically thought these things were just for blocking spirits, so how did Akemi, an ordinary human who wouldn't be blocked, know about them?

“I can’t guarantee the same for other rituals, but I’m very familiar with this one. No, not that it’s the same as the one I used, but it should be basically the same variation.” Akemi pointed to the ritual site. “Look, here are these symbols, arranged in this order… according to these angles…”

Yuri was a little dizzy. How did Akemi manage to remember such complicated things? Compared to that, Yuri might as well study math.

This applies only to high school mathematics, of course.

“…Hey, Yuri, I know you didn’t mean it that way, but if you ever meet any mystics you don’t know well, don’t show that attitude.” Akemi rubbed her forehead. “Not everyone can solve all problems with the convenient power of ‘making a wish,’ and those who can, like you, are not omnipotent.”

"What attitude did I show?" Yuri felt he should defend himself. Even if he unconsciously said what he was thinking, it shouldn't be considered offensive.

Isn't this describing an expression of "I'm astonished that you people can learn something so complex"?

“They show an attitude of ‘Wow, you guys actually enjoy this kind of troublesome stuff.’” Mingmei straightened up, left the ritual ring, and began to examine the other furniture. “In fact, we don’t enjoy it at all. Every mystic who actually starts doing all this wants to solve the problem easily… like, make a wish.”

Yuri cannot deny that he had thought of it that way.

“We can’t—we can’t do it. What’s an instinctual force for supernatural beings is an insurmountable obstacle for mortals, no matter how many times you say ‘as long as… then…’ it won’t work. It’s just that it can’t be done.” Akemi tapped on a box, her voice deepening. “Mystics have worked hard to develop various rituals, and making those rituals effective is already difficult enough. Simplifying them further is a lifelong dream for most people… yet it just doesn’t work. Most people don’t even know why their simplified versions are causing problems.”

Yuri felt a sense of pressure. Mingmei gave him the feeling that she wasn't speaking on his behalf, but rather on behalf of a whole bunch of already-fallen mystics.

“No one should be blamed for this, but if a wisher like you comes along and starts to doubt the necessity of this effort, it’s too easy to offend people… For example, imagine a hunter asking you, why don’t you just use your power to control all the ghosts in an area—how would you answer?” Akemi opened the box, and as Yuri had checked it before, it was empty.

Yuri understood what Akemi meant: "If you could, you would have done it already. Are you mocking me?"

But that's not the point. The point is that in order to prevent Akemi from continuing to ramble on, Yuri needs to quickly come up with a topic to interrupt her, preferably something related to the investigation.

"So, does this mean anything? From your perspective, how does the person who built this ritual site compare to you?" That's it. "Furthermore, you said it's a variation of the ritual you used. Does this mean that this cult might have some lineage connection with you?"