Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"..." Knowing that this wouldn't be good, Yuri chose to change the subject.

“When we first met, you offered a small knife here, claiming it could be used to deal with spirits—how effective was that?” Yuri pointed to the shrine.

"It's the same as wrapping prayer beads, talismans, or other ritualistic tokens around your hand, allowing ordinary things to come into contact with spirits. However, contact is just contact, and the damage it can cause is still the same—spirits don't have internal organs, so being stabbed with a knife is not much different from being punched, but having something in your hand will definitely make it more effective."

"Oh……"

"Moreover, the props made on the spot cannot last long. After repeated contact with spirits, their power will be exhausted. They are just ordinary objects that are infused with spiritual essence so that they can come into contact with spirits."

In other words, such a weapon is merely usable, not a weakness of the opponent.

"So, you can infuse a bundle of arrows with spiritual essence and then shoot them at the enemy from a distance?"

"The bigger the target, the more difficult it is. For arrows, efficiency should be the same as blessing a knife, but there is a problem."

Yuri stared directly at Akemi, waiting for her next words.

Do you know how to use a bow?

…………

Good question. Yuri has never had any memories of the bow.

After waiting a few seconds, he said, "It seems you can't. Coincidentally, I can't either. If I were to draw the bow, I can't guarantee what I'd hit. Hitting air would probably be a good result. It might require close-range shooting... but according to you, close contact with the opponent is inherently risky."

“Of course, ranged weapons aren’t limited to bows and arrows, but crossbows and guns are much harder to obtain. Throwing darts and slings have too short a range, and as for catapults, let alone knowing how to make them, even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to aim them accurately.” Mingmei counted on her fingers. “Of course, there are definitely ranged weapons I don’t understand, but ranged weapons I don’t understand are also difficult to use in rituals…”

This plan is also stalled. We can't exactly practice archery on the spot, can we? Unless we can find someone who knows how to shoot arrows.

Thinking about it carefully, even drawing a bow at close range is much better than fighting bare-handed, but it's impossible to solve the problem easily.

Plan One, long-range weapons, has flaws. Plan Three, delay, is executable but inherently flawed. Plan Four, finding weaknesses, has absolutely no clue where to begin.

Plan two remains: recruit more players.

"Hmm... Akemi, based on your experience, is it reliable to persuade ghosts to participate in a cooperative project to fight dangerous spirits?"

"In my experience?" Mingmei almost laughed out loud. "In my experience, they are very reliable, absolutely dependable. They won't deliberately hold each other back during cooperation, nor will they turn against each other afterward. They might even establish a long-term cooperative relationship and become friends."

...Wait a minute? Is the experience you're talking about—

"The only problem is that this experience is you."

Damn it.

"Most ghosts are stubborn individuals who are focused on their own goals and won't change course. They won't do anything unless the hunter has clearly threatened them—that's when you have to beg them. Are you good at pleading and persuading others?"

…………

"The good news is that once word gets out that you're at odds with the Hunter, ghosts who want to deal with him will come to you and cooperate. They react very quickly when their own interests are directly threatened. However, based on what you've said, firstly, you're not that famous, and secondly, there aren't that many powerful ghosts who want to be enemies with the Hunter."

Akemi stopped speaking.

"Of course, if you've actually done a lot of great things during this time, witnessed by other ghosts, and have already made a name for yourself...?"

"No, no, you're right, I'm still a nobody."

"By the way, I know some people locally who specialize in dealing with spirits... but from your description, that hunter should be a ghost, right? It's possible they can also deal with ghosts, but we can't count on them... and they're quite troublesome, so I don't want to go looking for them unless it's absolutely necessary."

Perhaps I could try tracking that hunter, so that when he encounters other resistance, I can take the initiative and at least gain more information. And as long as I carefully follow the route, I can always retreat in time, just like today. ...Wait, I should start by mastering the art of retreat.

Modern technology is truly advanced—there are cars on the roads most of the time in this city.

Yuri told Akemi his thoughts and received her advice: "Be careful. Don't actually get eaten. If you don't come back for two days in a row, I'll assume you're dead. I won't go out of my way to avenge you."

Of course.

Yuri devoted the rest of his time to learning how to infuse spirit essence into ordinary objects.

When Yuri consulted Akemi, she initially looked at him with confusion, then her expression suddenly dawned on her. After making a disclaimer, "This is a method used by humans; I don't know if it will be completely the same for ghosts," she explained the general method. It's essentially just ordinary meditation, the difference being that you need to guide these elements towards your target after recognizing the essence of the spirit (qi, thought, consciousness, or whatever else you want to call it).

Yuri didn't intend to ask what Minmei's change in expression meant; he had a feeling the outcome wouldn't make him happy.

Generally speaking, spirits don't usually carry complex weapons that aren't "naturally" crafted; they mostly use things they pick up randomly on the roadside for throwing.

There are many reasons for this. It is said that even a casual wave from a high-level spirit cannot withstand ordinary objects, and that attacks launched by the spirit itself can generate power far exceeding that of weapons.

Yuri is not a high-level spirit, so this is still very helpful.

Even if it's just offering the means of throwing stones, at least it can attract some attention, right? It's always good to have more skills.

Chapter Ten: Probing and Tracking

Yuri set off again at dawn to practice his ability to materialize at the right time on a nearby main road.

At this point in time, there are relatively few vehicles (although the number will increase soon), and the speed is generally not slow, making it somewhat challenging. On the other hand, the spacing between vehicles is relatively large, so if Yuri falls and crashes, it won't affect the vehicles following behind.

For drivers, if someone suddenly rolls off the roof of the car in front of them in heavy traffic, it will at best leave a psychological scar on the driver of the car behind, even if it doesn't directly cause a car accident.

In his materialized state, Yuri can be directly impacted by ordinary objects, but the effect is minimal. Moreover, as long as Yuri doesn't try to stay in place, he can mitigate the damage by being knocked away. With more thorough preparation, Yuri can even try to transform to avoid being hit. In general, ordinary objects are indeed difficult to have a substantial impact on him.

But this only applies to low-speed objects like the books, rulers, and stools that Akemi is waving around. If she were to be hit by a speeding car in a materialized form, Yuri doesn't think the world would be so forgiving.

According to Akemi, Yuri found a street without surveillance cameras—as for why Akemi knew there were no cameras there… Yuri decided not to delve into it.

……

The test was quite successful; at least when focused and undisturbed, Yuri was able to easily land on top of long vehicles (usually trucks with containers) and stop himself on top of the vehicle in time.

Overconfident and arrogant, Yuri began to take on more challenging projects.

As Yuri rolled off the back of a passing car, even though Yuri was quite certain that he hadn't caused any damage, the car still came to an abrupt stop. Fortunately, Yuri managed to re-enter his spirit form before the driver got out to check.

The driver walked along the edge of the road back to the previous spot, found nothing, and went back to get in the car.

Oh no, I forgot about the rearview mirror.

In the second attempt, Yuri managed to stop in the back half of the vehicle—blocking the rear window. Fortunately, the driver didn't notice immediately, and by the time he sensed something was wrong, Yuri had already switched back to his spirit form.

In the third test, Yuri revealed himself too early, tumbling in a less-than-graceful arc before crashing to the side of the road. Before Yuri could even properly examine his injuries as he struggled to his feet, he saw the car that had struck him speeding past, even faster than before.

...I was being very inconsiderate in doing this experiment, but you feel that hitting someone and then speeding away is also pretty inconsiderate... Upon examining himself, he realized that he had indeed suffered considerable trauma—after anticipating that Yuri would either faint or explode after a couple more hits, Yuri guiltily and quietly condemned the other party.

In reality, Yuri was still celebrating overall. The other party didn't suddenly brake and cause an accident. If they had, Yuri would have been able to do nothing but weep with regret and had no way to change the consequences of his actions.

It's better not to do that. He only succeeded halfway through three attempts, and each time there was a risk involved. Besides, he was already half-dead from the crash and had used up a lot of his spiritual essence to replenish it—these facts cooled down Yuri's feverish mind.

Dejected, Yuri decided to continue using the longer truck for training.

------

With increased traffic volume, further driving practice will obviously increase the likelihood of accidents.

It's time to do something else.

Yuri warned himself to learn from the morning's lesson, to avoid arrogance and impatience, and not to be hasty in achieving success. He only had one life—even if he might have several, at least others only had one. He shouldn't be reckless or risk other people's lives.

Besides, I don't even know if I have several lives left. What if running around aimlessly without a fixed anchor ends up being completely wiped out and dying? Do I really want to die and see what happens?

Yuri then set off to find potential partners, as planned.

Clearly, a ghost stronger than Yuri might... be a bit insane. This was based on Yuri's past experience of wandering into haunted houses and almost not escaping alive. Negotiating cooperation with them would be time-consuming, laborious, and dangerous.

However, ghosts of similar stature might agree to cooperate because of the risks posed by the hunter. Since an unknown person can't quickly spread their reputation to get people to seek their help, it's better to visit them in person and tell them there might be additional support available.

At the very least, you should get their assurance that if they see the hunter, they will inform you the next time you pass by.

And if the ghosts are gone when you pass by again, at least you'll know that the hunter once passed through this place.

The plan was executed...more smoothly than Yuri had initially anticipated.

After the hunters cleared out a wave of familiar ghosts, he thought there would be many areas without active low-level ghosts. To create a new, intelligent ghost of level two (he quickly realized the convenience of this ranking system and started using it), it either had to be a famous person who quickly received spiritual essence from the memories of many people after death, or it had to die with great resentment. Neither of these two things seemed likely to happen often.

But in reality, a new batch of ghosts quickly filled the void, most of whom died from various murders, for various reasons, and in various ways—Yuri didn't really care how they died, but they were new and relatively weak, so it was easier to reason with them.

Considering that there are murders reported in the newspapers almost every day, he believed that no matter how hard the hunters tried, they couldn't create a large enough ghost-free zone. Even if the hunters killed each ghost instantly, the rate at which new ghosts were being created was too fast—the frequency of murders here was far too high! No wonder the newspapers said that the police had come to regard detectives as an important part of their force, even as saviors of the Japanese police—the current police force must be exhausted and on the verge of collapse from overwork.

Everything has its pros and cons; one can't only look at the good side, Yuri repeatedly reminded himself. This also meant that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the hunters' energy replenishment plan would proceed very smoothly. Food was everywhere, constantly being produced—more food than could be eaten.

After saying goodbye to a middle-aged male ghost who considered himself a ghost messenger, Yuri paused his visits to new ghosts in the area. The locations were already quite complete; the next step was to ensure contact rather than blindly increasing the number of ghosts—besides, if he increased the number any further, Yuri might not be able to keep up.

While memorizing the locations of the new ghosts, Yuri's thoughts wandered, drawn to a word he had just mentioned... Ghost messengers... If ghost messengers really exist, would there be so many restless ghosts here? If there are ghost messengers, could he be asked to report the case and capture that hunter? What kind of ghosts are ghost messengers, anyway?

Forget it, what if we actually encounter the ghost messengers and they kidnap Yuri first? For some reason, Yuri felt that such a thing was very likely to happen.

We'll talk about it when the time comes; at worst, we'll fight to the death.

Besides, with so many ghosts blooming everywhere here, the ghost messengers must have died from overwork, just like the police.

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.

The next day, after completing the same training, Yuri, who was already adept at jumping onto the truck, set off to check if any ghosts had disappeared that day. If so... it meant that the hunter's actions were getting closer and closer.

Good news, no ghosts are missing. Even better news: one ghost said he saw the octopus monster wandering around and in the direction it was wandering, but he was well hidden so the flying octopus, dressed in clothes, didn't spot him. (Yuri is skeptical about the "well hidden" part; it's more likely the hunters didn't expect a ghost to fill the gap so quickly and therefore didn't pay special attention to the area.)

"Please describe in detail what that flying octopus monster looks like. For example, how many tentacles does it have?"

“It’s everywhere, it’s all over his body. You said you would deal with it, right?”

Yuri thought for a moment—"Of course I'll deal with it, but I might not be able to win... Telling you this won't do you any good."

Could you describe its condition in more detail?

"That's right, it extends tentacles with suckers on them, and it shoots forward like an octopus. It's extremely ferocious and impossible to communicate with—"

"...What you said is almost exactly what I know. —The question is, how do you know that?"

"what?"

"What?! If you've really seen the tentacles and suction cups, and even communicated with them, would you still be standing here? I'll ask you one more time: how much of what you saw, how much of what I said before, and how much of what you saw and what I said is just your wild imagination? Please think about it carefully and tell the truth. There's nothing shameful about it. Tell me the truth so I can deal with it more effectively. This is also to protect your own life!"

After a few minutes, Yuri confirmed that the trembling ghost hadn't actually observed carefully. Most of what he saw was just a silhouette combined with Yuri's description, leading to his own ghostly imagination. What he actually saw was a figure extending tentacles to pick up a broken record and eat it.

Being too bold and unafraid of the hunter, only to be killed in the end, is one problem; being too timid and not even looking before fabricating a story is another... Yuri can't blame them; they have no obligation to him.

But Yuri still hoped they could tell him everything he wanted to know, like they had eyes and ears everywhere.

In short, since the suction cup is just an idea, we can't conclude that the hunter has evolved again for now. That's good. If the enemy visibly evolved after just two days of not seeing him, he might have to flee Tokyo overnight.

It's time to personally track down the octopus monster and try to observe it further.

Yuri followed the general direction. The difficulty in tracking the octopus monster was how to avoid being discovered by it, but once the trick was found, it wasn't difficult.

In this city where murders are rampant and death is rampant, we found a long, clean area where there were no ghosts or even a broken record.

This is the route the hunter took.

For both Yuri and the octopus monster, sight plays a significant role in reconnaissance. Feelings and intuitions are not absent, but they are not clear enough, making it easy to miss something or be blocked by unexpected obstacles. After all, a feeling of "there are other ghosts ahead" will not tell you that there is a wall blocking the ghosts.

As he advanced, he focused intently on observing the hunter's tracks, striving to spot the target's trail as quickly as possible. He was especially careful around corners; even if the area behind him remained within sight, it might disappear around the corner. If he encountered the octopus monster around a corner, Yuri had no particularly good options but to risk taking a few hits and quickly run to create distance. If he suffered such a setback at the beginning, his subsequent observations would become very difficult.

At the same time, pay attention to the main roads nearby and be prepared to run quickly to avoid going in the wrong direction.

After ruling out several incorrect paths by observing the presence of other ghosts (Yuri believed that the fact that the weak ghost standing out so prominently was still alive meant that the hunter had not passed through the area), Yuri successfully discovered traces of the hunter.

In an alley where the signs of a cordon had just been removed, a hunter was slowly approaching the ghost of a young woman. His target trembled, offering no resistance, and appeared to have even less experience as a ghost than Yuri.

"Run! What are you standing there for!" Yuri hurled the stone he had just picked up and infused with spiritual essence at the hunter, while simultaneously trying to shout to warn the ghost about to be killed to leave.

This was meaningless, Yuri knew perfectly well that he was powerless to drive away the hunter, and the ghosts, bound by the anchor, could not run too far. When Yuri was repelled by the octopus monster again, the newly born ghosts would still be unable to escape its clutches.

"At least I don't want to watch the enemy continue to strengthen themselves," Yuri told himself.

The enemy... Yes, they were enemies from the very first meeting. It was the other side that identified them first, and Yuri couldn't change that trend.

The hunter turned the instant it heard the sound, and then the stone struck its tentacle, bouncing off. The hunter let out an angry shriek, "You've come to me of your own accord—", but Yuri was already very adept at dealing with this move, and the protective barrier could effectively defend against this force.

Of course, the stone would be deflected no matter what; did I expect it to actually pierce through the opponent? Yuri suppressed his disappointment and confirmed another fact: the octopus monster also considered him an enemy.

The octopus monster's original target, the newborn female ghost, stopped moving under the influence of the scream and remained trembling in place—while the octopus monster abandoned the food within reach and turned to pounce on Yuri.

Yuri felt a sense of...relief? If he hadn't been considered a specific enemy, swallowing the newborn ghost wouldn't have been a big deal. The boots finally landed on the ground; the potential enemy was confirmed as an enemy... This didn't change reality. The hunter didn't consider him an enemy because of my understanding of the situation; I understood the situation even better. This wasn't a bad thing.

The octopus monster didn't look much different from the ones they'd encountered before, maybe it had more tentacles? Yuri hadn't counted them. Its clothes looked rather tattered; the octopus monster hadn't tried to repair them.

Then, a tentacle thrust that almost grazed his face pulled Yuri back to reality.

Chapter Eleven: Another Battle, Another Escape

In terms of the tentacles' dexterity and speed, Yuri doesn't think the hunter's abilities have changed much.

Its movements are still quite obvious and lack control. As long as Yuri retreats with all his might (that is, at the same speed as the opponent's advance), he can dodge the opponent's attack at a relatively safe distance.

This time, however, the Hunter's jet propulsion was more frequent, and sometimes it seemed to be deliberately ramming into Yuri's side.

First, we can rule out the possibility that it was truly an accidental mishap; no matter what, this is incredibly disrespectful to the opponent.

Then, if the goal is to launch a direct attack, there is no benefit in deflecting the attack.