Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

Well, at least he didn't run away, so there's no problem. He won't worry after the treatment is over!

Yuri extended a finger and pressed it against Kuro's forehead, beginning to observe the demon's condition.

Let's just ignore the fat man's wide-eyed, bewildered state for now.

"If you don't like the fingers, I can turn my arm into tentacles—which do you prefer?"

"No, no, no, this is fine, no need for you to go to all that trouble!"

Is that so? Then Yuri will continue. The sooner he gets to this point, the less pain he will likely suffer.

Yuri opened his magical eye and tried to observe the internal condition of the spirit before him.

121 Information Intake

Many occult books describe how sorcerers strengthen their spiritual allies through special rituals, a large part of which involve various strange blood sacrifices. According to Mingmei, the purpose of these blood sacrifices is to create a stronger spiritual field and release the energy in one's life force, and in most cases, the spirit that absorbs this energy heals itself.

All Yuri had to do was heal the damage to the spirit, so his method didn't require such complicated procedures—however, it wasn't without its flaws.

Currently, the biggest problem is that he needs to figure out exactly what he wants to do.

The desire to "heal the wound" might be admirable, but it's difficult to execute when the understanding of the wound itself is unclear. When treating a hybrid spirit, if the healer is completely unaware of the spirit's internal state, a successful treatment is virtually impossible. At best, it will be a waste of effort; at worst, it could lead to other adverse problems, such as turning healing into creating more injury.

Hei Shi's resistance was not strong, or rather, he did not suppress his instinctive resistance, but he did not deliberately strengthen it either... He seemed more like he was at a loss.

Yuri was finally able to ambush others, and he really wanted to celebrate. Now he could do things that others didn't expect—besides, he was definitely much stronger than Kuroshi.

There's nothing else to worry about; the wound itself isn't serious (of course, the gradual healing over the past week might also be a factor), but a force is entangled around it.

It was so thin that it was difficult to notice when it became entangled with the spirit of the Black World itself. However, it was stuck on the wound, hindering normal regeneration and slowing down the regeneration process considerably.

If left unattended, it will probably dissipate naturally in another day or two—assuming the dissipation rate remains the same, reverting to the very beginning… To be honest, it's not that much stronger; Yuri could still easily dispel it, but in that case, you might be able to sense it directly when you see it.

It doesn't seem like a deliberate targeting; it might just be an extra effect that comes with a casual strike... Suppressing a spirit's regeneration ability is a rather troublesome effect for most spirits that need to accumulate power through bloodshed.

But the problem remains: it's not strong enough. If Yuri can dispel it, it probably won't be a problem for a level three spirit (there might still be some obstacles, but it will mostly only slightly increase the consumption), and it's almost impossible to affect a level four spirit.

If it were a human... it's hard to say. If it were to work, it might cause humans to die a very tragic death, but in principle, it doesn't seem like it would work—we probably need to find a target to test it on.

Yuri casually flicked his wrist in his mind, and the barrier that was almost gone completely disappeared.

Next, although it's possible to let Heishi recover on his own... but since we've already come this far, we might as well go all the way.

The Mongolian doctor slightly activated his spiritual essence, beginning to stimulate the regenerative abilities of the involuntary patient before him.

Using magic to heal a spirit does not mean directly transferring the spirit essence to restore it; that would be too inefficient, and Yuri simply couldn't handle it.

The key is to allow the spirit awaiting treatment to regenerate itself without depleting its remaining energy reserves—in other words, to unleash the potential of the spiritual essence that constitutes the spirit itself.

To put it more bluntly, it's a process similar to transferring spiritual energy from other parts of the body to replenish it, making the overall spiritual energy throughout the body "thinner." Like humans, most spiritual entities have a certain amount of redundant parts in their structure. As long as these parts are activated and transferred to the injured area, the wound can be healed without affecting the normal functioning of other parts.

Although Yuri hasn't tried treating humans yet, the structure of spirits has a huge advantage in this regard, since all parts of the body are made of spirit matter, so there's no particular difference! It doesn't seem very reliable to treat humans.

Kuroshi instinctively resisted the movement, but since he hadn't prepared beforehand while Yuri had... his resistance was pointless.

After the wound treatment is completed, the patient may feel slightly weak, but not worse than when they were injured.

Whether you call it robbing Peter to pay Paul, at least it's useful until the eastern wall collapses.

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.

After bidding farewell to Kuroshi, who was repeatedly expressing his gratitude, Yuri continued his journey home.

On the way back, Yuri acted furtively, feeling guilty, and tried to avoid enemies he hadn't even noticed—but after a few minutes he realized how foolish he was, thinking that going straight home might actually reduce the chances of encountering enemies.

During his previous treatment of Kuroi, he was once again convinced of the problems he had realized earlier. This treatment method was certainly not perfect, and his previous hope that "the treatment of conscious people could suddenly change" was also dashed.

This spell has a limit to its healing power. The result of robbing Peter to pay Paul is that once there's nothing left to rob in the east wall, it can no longer continue to heal.

In other words, for each target, after a certain amount of low-cost healing, it reverts to an inefficient mode where energy must be spent to recover.

Yuri's original hope of extending his lifespan countless times with his shield and healing abilities was shattered... If he wanted to use this move perfectly, he would either have to transform himself into some kind of high-density spiritual compressed body, in short, increase his maximum lifespan, or he would have to find some kind of external energy source to replace his spiritual essence.

Alternatively, one could flexibly find ways to modify oneself, or try to connect to the upper realm or somewhere else... Currently, neither of these seems easy.

Having something is better than not having anything, but it's only better than not having anything at all.

When will I finally be truly invincible?

Yuri continued toward Akemi's residence.

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.

When they got back to their accommodation, it was almost midnight. Mingmei was still awake, even though she had class the next day.

"So, what did you talk about this time?" Mingmei, sitting on the sofa with a blanket covering her, greeted Yuri.

...Oh no, there's this too. Yuri's head started spinning instantly.

"Well, it's probably about me helping you out, since the situation's been a bit dangerous lately..." Yuri hesitated, wondering whether to elaborate.

"How can you help me?" Akemi stared at him intently. "Is it the kind of help you can't tell me?"

...Yuri rarely hated Akemi's sharpness so much.

Seeing Yuri's somewhat embarrassed expression, Akemi shifted her position slightly, still covering herself under the blanket. "So, you're asking me to persuade me to agree to become a werewolf?"

"Huh? How did you know?" Yuri did his best to keep his expression unchanged—if he showed anything wrong, it would be tantamount to telling her she was telling the truth. "Advising you to become a werewolf? Why would you think that?"

“Alright, stop being so serious, Yuri… You are indeed a loyal and honest friend, and your aunt can certainly trust you to keep secrets…” The high school girl on the sofa smiled. “But your aunt herself can’t keep secrets, at least not about me. She’s been trying to persuade me to become a werewolf every now and then when she’s called me this past week, but she deliberately didn’t mention it the last two days… and then she came to you. I don’t think she could have avoided making that request.”

Yuri continued to try to maintain his expression, then subtly adjusted it to look surprised… To be honest, he felt he was about to break down, but he still made one last effort, “Well, actually—”

What should I say in this situation? Hurry up and write something, Yuri!

“Actually, there’s no need to go to so much trouble, Yuri. Anyway, I can tell you the conclusion directly: it’s pointless to persuade someone to become a werewolf, and there’s little chance of success. It’s not that I absolutely don’t want to become a werewolf, but trying to persuade me to become one will only backfire.” Akemi pointed to the sofa next to her, gesturing for Yuri to sit down. “But Auntie definitely won’t give up. She’ll keep trying no matter what… and that’s something no one can influence.”

"Alright, you've seen right through me." Yuri finally surrendered. "She thinks you didn't become a werewolf because of your inner resistance. To be honest, I don't think there's anything wrong with that line of thinking. You don't really have a strong desire to become a werewolf."

Mingmei shook her head slightly. "We've already discussed it. Let's not waste any more time repeating the same things."

There's really nothing more to say about that; we'll probably just have to let things slide.

Yuri floated down onto the sofa, a spot that had remained unfilled since it was cleared out last week.

"Are you watching TV?" The old-fashioned television across from the sofa was on, the volume turned down to the lowest setting so as not to interfere with the conversation.

Yuri hesitated for a moment before starting to talk about the trackers, then casually began the conversation, and Akemi picked up where he left off.

“Yes, I was probably watching the news about those dangerous things you mentioned…” Akemi pointed to a building on the TV screen. “Look.”

To be honest, the TV's display quality wasn't very good, but Yuri still roughly recognized the building... Yes, it was the house where the cultists used to hold their meetings.

Or perhaps they look very similar, but in that case, Akemi would have no reason to point them out to her.

The television broadcast seemed to be nearing its end. Unfamiliar reporters on the scene were speaking into microphones, but it was impossible to hear them or read the subtitles. However, the atmosphere suggested they were giving concluding remarks.

"What did they say?" Yuri asked.

"Nothing special was said, but in general... it was discovered that more than a month ago, a cult leader and her cronies began manufacturing weapons for terrorist attacks in this building. It was a new type of poison gas. To avoid copycats, I won't name the specific gas. To avoid the police's attention, they didn't purchase real industrial equipment but instead used civilian equipment and rudimentary methods to manufacture it. This led to poor effectiveness and the eventual leak."

What is this saying?

Mingmei continued, "Then, after the leak, due to the wind direction that day, it spread to a fairly large area—and almost immediately had fatal consequences for the cult leader and her confidants. When the remaining followers discovered this, in order to avoid being held accountable, they tried to move them to a nearby garbage dump to hide, but because they lacked awareness of precautions during this process, they also inhaled a large amount of toxic gas and fell into a coma on the spot. Afterwards, they even hallucinated and completely forgot about it—oh, some of them really didn't know, as mentioned before, only the high-ranking cult members were truly involved in this plan."

Yuri felt dizzy; he was a spirit, he shouldn't be dizzy—but the situation described by Akemi greatly shocked him.

“Then, just like the rumors I told you before, the density of the spreading poison gas was quite low. Only the most sensitive people would fall into a coma as a result, and only the weakest among them would leave us as a result—” Mingmei coughed, concluding her statement.

"Nonsense!" This is not true, and it's not even a fact that can be deduced. Poison gas was manufactured a month ago? Yuri went there back then and didn't see any such plan or such a thing!

"Why is it nonsense?" Akemi asked Yuri with a cryptic smile.

"I—we've been there, there's nothing there at all—"

“There it is, Yuri.” The high school girl interrupted Yuri. “The first half of this program was filmed on location by reporters. The police stormed into the house and took out a chemical container that was suspiciously damaged—from what I observed, it did look like a civilian container, but it was still a chemical container.”

"..." The huge blow plunged Yuri into silence. He struggled to rally his spirits. "Why is this happening?"

“It’s quite obvious,” Mingmei’s smile widened. “A kind person has found a suitable reason for everyone, a reason that, while not perfect, is hard to scrutinize and can be used as a workaround.”

"...hell."

Lies, these are all lies. Yuri couldn't tell whether it was good or bad for a moment, but he felt somewhat provoked.

Meanwhile, Akemi was still laughing silently, her laughter growing to the point that Yuri could no longer ignore it.

"Why are you still laughing?" In this matter, Akemi and I were involved to about the same extent, so why do I feel stimulated while Akemi... is like this?

"Ah, this... I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it. Don't you think it's ridiculous? The stability of Tokyo society is built on lies." Akemi pulled her hand out from under the blanket, rubbed her face, and forcibly suppressed her smile.

If Yuri hadn't been involved, it would have been quite comical for an outsider.

"And what we can do... no, not even considering whether we can do it—Yuri, if you were given the chance to disclose all the information you know to everyone, to lay out everything you know and the evidence in front of them, would you tell all of this to the ignorant citizens of Tokyo?"

No.

122 Miniature Battle

It is said that many people are hypocritical, and Yuri has just discovered that he is hypocritical himself—if he were to decide how to inform others, he would probably do the same thing, but he gets angry because others do what he would do.

"Alright, that's about it. Is there anything else? If not, I'm going to bed."

Although I really wanted Akemi to just go to bed and rest, I still had to tell her something else.

"Yes, it seems someone is investigating my whereabouts."

Yuri briefly relayed what a gang ghost had told him.

Akemi didn't give a special reaction, or rather, she seemed a bit indifferent—judging from her expression, Yuri felt that she was about to say "that's it" any second.

"What's wrong? I feel this isn't a good sign." That was the concluding remark.

"It's too early to say whether this is good or bad. After all, we've been maintaining peace and stability in the city both times we've done this—maybe they'll come to your door to recruit you, or even give you a medal." Mingmei closed her eyes. "While we can't say we should completely let our guard down, I think it's too early to assume they're the enemy. There's no need to get nervous beforehand."

What she said does make some sense...

Am I overthinking things?

Seeing that Yuri did not refute her, Akemi turned off the TV and got up to rest.

Yuri was left behind to adjust his focus.

The threat from the Rat King doesn't seem to be coming anytime soon, so it can be relegated to the less important areas of our tasks. Or to put it bluntly, forget about it.

The same goes for any newly added potential threats; let's just forget about them. Yuri felt it was unlikely he would encounter a situation where there were no threats for a long time.

It's time to invest time and effort in improving myself.

Is it to reread a page of notes, or to try out the inspiration previously gained from a scroll or a ticket?

After hesitating for a moment, Yuri chose the former.

After all, the stone lanterns have been collected again, so we can't waste Akemi's kindness.

Half an hour later, Yuri sighed as he looked at the notes that now displayed normal text.

Failed.

Yuri was overwhelmed by the various spells listed on the latest page—unfortunately, all the spells were completely different from his current abilities. For example, reversing the direction of things, remotely monitoring targets, forcing magical objects that he didn't know how to activate to start... It wasn't that the effects were bad, but they were all completely unrelated to Yuri's current powers, making them useless as a reference.

There's still more than half a book left, and Yuri has only unlocked three pages so far... The future looks promising. In other words, there's really no other way right now.

Half of the stone lanterns were used up, and Yuri also used up half of his.

The only takeaway is that, after a rough estimate, it was found that spell patterns and specific ways of casting spells are more affected than simple textual descriptions, and therefore require more energy to counteract them.

This page is all set to a standard pattern, but Yuri can still manage to eat it, and if he were to use the stone lanterns for supplies, he would definitely be able to finish it.

Now, the only thing standing in Yuri's way of deciphering all the notes is time.

At the same time, this also means that either Yuri's total energy storage has increased, or his energy utilization efficiency has increased, which is a good thing either way.

The remaining power should be enough to decipher one more page, and then it will be exhausted... Yuri thought for a moment and decided to give up and come back when he was fully replenished.

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.

Three more days passed, and Yuri continued to go out into the streets to steal tape recorders in order to replenish his energy.

The number of repeaters is slowly recovering. Although the density will not return to what it used to be, it is not accurate to say that there are large open spaces in any area.

The rat swarm has a stronger effect on low-level ghosts than on hunters. Once discovered, they are unlikely to escape alone, and the rat swarm's all-around attack has a much wider range of influence.

But in a wretched place like Tokyo, as long as humanity isn't wiped out, the endless stream of cases will keep replenishing the supply. —And Yuri has some suspicions that, when there aren't enough ghosts, some kind of resource that's usually hard to notice is allocated to the newborn ghosts—it seems that after these two incidents, the proportion of intelligent beings among the newborn ghosts has increased.

Or is it just an illusion?

While replenishing his energy, Yuri was also trying to gather information related to the suspicious stalker.