Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"That sounds good, but what's the problem?"

Yuri didn't immediately see the problem, but why should he be consulted for a plan that had no problems?

"Damn it, Yuri, haven't you realized yet? This plan means you'll be attacking the Rat King's area alone while I distract the rats. The werewolf might come, but even if she does, she'll only offer help, not risk her life. There's only one person who'll risk their life in this plan, and that's you, you, yourself. You're in the most dangerous part!" Mingmei seemed to have her temper ignited instantly.

"Ah, that's right." Yuri was somewhat moved, but he didn't show it.

Or rather, he was very moved, but in fact, this step had already been implicitly agreed upon in his plan.

After all, it would be difficult for him to say that he was going to do the guiding work by holding the token of the train spirit. On the contrary, if he put on an attitude of "I'm sacrificing myself to blow up the Rat King, wouldn't it be nice if you just helped me out?", he would have a great advantage in terms of momentum.

Mingmei is worried about this, firstly because she is a good person, secondly because she is not stupid, and finally because she may not have forgotten what Yuri said back then.

Okay, so he's worried about others being in danger. He's not stupid, so he knows the consequences would be bad if Yuri held a grudge. He hasn't forgotten the words, so he still remembers this.

"What are you laughing at?" Mingmei stared at her.

“No, no, no, what I mean is, I obviously have a plan—” Yuri quickly activated his thinking organs and began to fabricate, “Actually, I’m not particularly in danger in this plan—”

"Ok?"

"Because I can activate the token at any time to draw a fierce attack from Line 2, and I myself will not be injured in this attack. If things are not going well, I can just activate the token and clear a path no matter which direction it is attacked from, and then I can just run out."

Yuri is starting to believe his own fabrications.

"You would do that? You wouldn't be so desperate as to risk your life to hit the other person no matter what, would you?" Mingmei's eyes were filled with suspicion.

What is this high school girl thinking? I had the same question just a dozen hours ago.

Yuri repeatedly indicated that he would not do that.

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 general operational procedures have been finalized; the next step is to add a few details.

Mingmei took the motorcycle and root carving to the outskirts to harass the rats, trying to attract their attention and lead them away from Yuri.

Then Yuri seized the opportunity to launch a kamikaze attack... no, I mean, a lone raid.

The root carving friend pointed out that the plan was completely unfeasible, and he demanded that after the plan failed and everyone fled, his payment be made as usual.

At least he didn't say he was definitely going to die this time, right?

Mingmei agreed to her friend's request regarding the root carving and subsequently added some details.

“To ensure we’re in a precarious situation but not so precarious, my plan is to circle the garbage dump several times around the block, causing the rats to run wildly everywhere, and then suddenly slow down so they can catch up. At this point, we—” she patted the root carving, “just hold on for a while, and then suddenly a werewolf will appear to rescue us.”

"Wait a minute!" Yuri exclaimed in alarm.

"You mean, Murakami Akisa isn't waiting nearby, not observing you from the shadows ready to jump out and protect you at any moment, but is currently somewhere unknown, and then she'll 'suddenly' appear?"

"Really?" Just like Yuri before, Akemi didn't seem to find anything wrong with this at all.

Yuri's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. This was probably the most absurd thing he'd heard all day—"A werewolf can suddenly appear next to anyone?"

"Not all werewolves can do that. All I know is that they can appear next to familiar targets—like next to me."

This is really bad.

However, it seems there are at least some limitations, otherwise Yuri would probably question why those who drank so much seawater didn't all "suddenly appear" in Tokyo.

Yuri confirmed with Akemi about the sudden restrictions.

The conclusion is that, although there are many other problems, the biggest problem is beyond our control—that is, when will Murakami Akisa realize that Akemi is in crisis and start coming to her aid?

Other aspects, such as the possibility of being extremely irritable at the moment of occurrence, and the possibility of slight deviations in the specific location, are insignificant compared to this problem.

"How long will it take her to react if we only rely on her senses?"

“I’m not sure, but I think it’ll be between two and five minutes—if the crisis I’m in is more obvious, she should react faster, but if that were the case, she would probably just grab me and run away after it suddenly appears.” Akemi waved her finger. “Considering that I’ve been blocking out this kind of sensation for a long time, I think her reaction should be relatively quick after she suddenly gets this feeling.”

No, no, no, it's also possible that because there's been no sensation for a long time, when suddenly encountering it, one doesn't know what's going on.

“We can strengthen this a bit, Minmei—before we leave, I’ll call her on your phone and tell her you’re in a dangerous environment,” Yuri suggested. “Then she’ll have a basic understanding of your situation, and when you’re really in danger, she’ll come to your rescue.”

"I don't quite understand what you're saying, but does this ability have no distance limit?" the root carving interjected.

“Of course,” Mingmei replied quickly.

"What if the werewolf isn't within range? Approximately how far is this ability's range?"

Akemi shook her head. "I don't know either. But there's a way to fix it—Yuri, when you called, you just said I was near the junkyard. I'm sure she got close enough."

None of the three people have any doubts about this now.

Of course, Yuri had another problem: he felt a little guilty, but there was no use thinking about his conscience now... He could just keep going by saying "I'm the one in the most danger anyway."

Secondly, regarding Yuri's kamikaze... oh no, I mean, the part about his lone raid.

In the best-case scenario, all the rats were drawn away by Akemi, leaving not even the smallest mouse behind. Then, even the Rat King himself focused all his attention on Akemi, allowing Yuri to enter comfortably, aim smoothly, and solve the problem easily—the difference between this and a dream is probably that a dream is more realistic.

This assault needs to address three issues: speed, stealth, and risk.

The rat swarm is slower than Yuri, but if they charge head-on, they still can't escape him. If he gets buried alive by the rats, then he'll have no choice but to fight his way out and abandon the mission.

Yuri believes he can solve the problem by consuming spiritual essence to unleash a burst of speed, and he hasn't found a better way yet.

However, it is clear that while the weak rats probably do not have the luxury of spending spiritual essence to pursue Yuri, the advanced rats can still do it, especially if the Rat King orders them to do so.

There is no good way to solve this problem.

If you don't have a speed advantage, then at least you should launch an attack from the closest possible distance.

If they are detected from a kilometer away, it's difficult for the rat swarm to remain completely unresponsive. But if Yuri gets within ten meters before launching a sudden attack, they may not have time to react.

Mingmei pointed out that Yuri had never undergone any hiding training, and even if he had, the rats formed a warning line with their bodies. Unless Yuri could fly or disappear underground, even if he was completely transparent to the rats, he would still inevitably step on them once he got close enough.

Finally, the risk... getting eaten by rats, charging past the rats to face the Rat King and then being instantly killed by the Rat King – this is the main risk Yuri faces this time.

The root carving friend concluded that he extended a wooden strip and patted Yuri, preparing to hold an early farewell ceremony for his remains.

According to him, Yuri will soon have nothing left, so now is the perfect time to say goodbye.

Yuri had to admit that no matter how hard Akemi tried, even if she exaggerated the shrine's allure and had Murakami Akisa scream until she lost her voice, if he planned to rush in on foot, he would still be doomed.

If you're looking for transportation, it would be difficult to find a vehicle that sped into the landfill.

Option one: Yuri goes to "borrow" a car, then floores the accelerator (even Yuri knows which pedal is the accelerator, roughly), and crashes wherever he ends up. The first half of this plan is relatively easy, but given Yuri's driving skills, it's unlikely he'll be heading straight for the Rat King instead of the wall. The junkyard isn't directly opposite the street entrance; to aim at the gate, he'd need to turn in the middle of the street, which contradicts his ability to accelerate.

Furthermore, if it fails, Yuri will definitely be right in the middle of the swarm of rats, and he probably won't have a chance to try a second vehicle.

Option two: Everyone can set up a slingshot on the spot and launch Yuri in.

The rat swarm's warning range was about two hundred meters, and Yuri had heard that the best catapults could throw that far—based on that, as long as Yuri was holding the stone, he could break into the landfill in a very Japanese-Indian hybrid way.

This plan has several advantages over the first one, including less damage and a potentially faster pace.

The downside is that none of the three lazy bums present knew whether it was feasible or not.

Fortunately, Mingmei's phone still had power—it was almost empty after all that fuss, but not quite.

A few minutes later, Mingmei raised her phone and regretfully told Yuri something: that catapult was just too big—the counterweight alone would be measured in tons.

If scaled down to the version they could make with their current skill level and time... it would probably barely shed its toy status, maybe a dozen meters? Twenty meters? Akemi wasn't sure exactly how far it could be thrown, but it was clearly not enough.

Option three: Yuri finds some planks and makes a hang glider, jumps from a nearby tall building, and tries to fly over the distance of more than 100 meters.

Given his skill level, this hang glider is likely to descend rather than ascend, but since he'll eventually crash into the junkyard anyway, he just needs to hold on until then. If he actually manages to reach the top of the junkyard, he might crash even faster.

The problem is simple—a hang glider built by Yuri would likely be unusable due to its durability and complete lack of balance. Coupled with Yuri being a complete novice pilot, the casualty rate would be close to 1.

At this point, Mingmei covered her forehead and suggested that everyone take a five-minute break. She also specifically pointed out that Yuri could go find some water to cool down his head.

Clearly, Akemi suspected that Yuri had lost his mind, given how increasingly absurd these plans were.

Chapter Ninety-Seven: Kite Tactics

The available rest time is not long, and in fact, the time to wait is not long either.

Or rather, the shorter the better.

"To combine the advantages of these methods—that is, to have the controllability of a vehicle, the speed of a slingshot, and the trajectory of a glider—I've come up with a new solution." Yuri persevered despite repeated setbacks.

"What's the new plan? Or should we consider going back directly?" Mingmei, the root carving representative, spoke.

After being bombarded by Yuri's numerous unreliable plans in a short period of time, it and Minmei have become acquainted and formed an anti-Yuri nonsense alliance, with the common goal of refuting Yuri's rambling plans.

"I'll make a hang glider, then attach a rope to the back of Akemi's car, and let Akemi pull me along. That way, I'll be high up, while also gaining speed from the ground—Akemi, what's with that look?" Yuri believed his plan combined the advantages (and likely disadvantages) of multiple options.

Akemi's expression seemed different from when she had repeatedly voiced her objections before.

Could it be that she thinks any plan is fine? Yuri could tell that in the past, if he insisted on carrying out the goal, Akemi would back down first—but Yuri himself was also convinced that those plans were unreliable, so he didn't persist.

“We usually call this a kite… and I think this plan is pretty good.” Mingmei glanced at Yuri, then at the root carving. “At least it’s more reliable than the previous one.”

Yu proposed ten thousand unreliable plans. Li and the root carving artist looked at each other in bewilderment.

That's settled then.

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 kite manufacturing process was completed quickly, and at first glance it looked quite decent (of course, upon closer inspection, it was not so).

After all, it is the culmination of everyone's hard work, and when we really get serious, the manufacturing process is quite fast (in fact, there is no room for complicated processing).

Mingmei provided the rope, Yuri destroyed the trees, and the root carving roughly trimmed the branches (is this considered a work of art?). Then Yuri destroyed the other people's car covers, dragged them back, and roughly covered the frames (the root carving couldn't help at this step; it said it wouldn't work unless it was wood, which was really useless). Then it managed to wrap around a few corners, and finally the root carving added a cuttable part to secure the knots.

Mingmei tugged at the "kite" and waved it a couple of times, concluding that it was about 50/50 whether it would fly or not.

In other words, if Akemi and Yuri are very skilled at flying kites, this thing will definitely be able to fly, but if they make a mistake, it might drag on the ground. Considering that this is the best kite we've ever flown, which we've supposed to take off with a car, it's definitely a substandard product compared to ordinary kites.

It's still usable, as long as a few issues are resolved.

The problems include: 1. The driver is incompetent and completely lacks skill. 2. The frame itself is too heavy. 3. While the body cover isn't exactly drafty, it certainly doesn't completely block the wind.

Since the first problem couldn't be solved, we moved directly to the next step.

Mingmei quickly offered an improvement suggestion—to remove the frame and turn a flat kite into a hemispherical parachute-shaped cloth bag.

This improvement was rejected because it would be difficult to attach it to a motorcycle, and Yuri, who was planned to attach to a flying object, would lose his method of rapid descent—the flat-plate type could land easily by adjusting the angle, but the balloon type would be much more difficult.

Root Carving suggested that Yuri might just let go and jump down? Anyway, he can't fly up again with this kite, so he can just jump if the conditions are similar.

That's not impossible, but Yuri still wanted to try a little harder and retain some maneuverability—no matter how you explain it, it's unlikely that the car's route will go through the middle of the junkyard; it will only be running in circles. With the limited length of the rope, this means that the kites behind are also unlikely to go through the middle of the junkyard, and Yuri himself will have to adjust the direction.

The structure of the skeleton is determined by root carving because the strength of untreated branches cut off in general is limited, and it is difficult to preserve the necessary parts without destroying the overall structure.

However, this should change if Yuri manages to strengthen its structure.

After Yuri consumed the spiritual essence, his root carving friend made an assessment, saying that he could reduce some of the excess parts that couldn't be removed before, but he also warned Yuri that no matter how you look at it, the kite would fall apart as soon as its strength returned to normal.

Since it's a disposable kite anyway, it doesn't matter—with that mindset, Yuri removed as much material as possible.

Akemi waved it twice more, thinking it should be able to fly, although it probably wouldn't fly very gracefully, but... there probably wasn't much room for improvement.

The implementation of the plan cannot be delayed any longer.

A group of rats had already passed the alley entrance, but fortunately the three of them hid well enough, and Yuri was outside waving the twigs he had picked up, jumping and hopping to attract attention, which finally lured the rats away. Yuri, who had left the twigs behind, raced with the rats for several minutes before shaking them off and circling back.

It was time to set off. Yuri took off his hat and handed it to Akemi so she could put it in her pocket.

That way, in an emergency, if Akemi punches the hat, Yuri will know he should come back immediately.

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 positioned himself in the very center of the kite structure. In the final step, he needed to cut the connecting part and take control himself—before that, he needed to coordinate with Minmei's route to taunt her.

The method of securing it involves injecting spiritual essence into a wooden ring and then wedging the hand inside.

There's one last thing to do before we leave.

Dial the phone to contact Ms. Akisa Murakami.

"Akami, what's wrong with you? Why didn't I see you here in Okumura?" A barrage of questions came as soon as the call connected, and Yuri instinctively held the phone away from his ear.

It's not that Ms. Murakami could jump out of her phone—could she?—but Yuri was a little apprehensive.

“I’m not Akemi, I’m Yuri—the one next to Akemi—” Yuri’s words were immediately interrupted.

"What are you doing with Akemi's phone?" Murakami Akisa asked, her tone a little urgent.

“Mingmei is moving towards the junkyard, yes, that junkyard. Are you nearby? I’m worried she might be in danger.” Yuri had almost no need to pretend—he should appear anxious, and right now he was indeed very anxious, afraid of giving himself away.

"What? How long has she been gone?!" A faint sound of wind came through the receiver, indicating that the other side had probably already started running.

"She dodged me away, and I still have my phone so I can't contact her!" Yuri quickly added a patch to the unresolved issue. If he had said, "We're about 400-500 meters from the junkyard, and she just set off," it would likely have raised suspicions.

As soon as he finished speaking, he realized that he had created another flaw—if the information had not been checked beforehand, then why was the phone in Yuri's hands?