Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"Oh right?" Yuri didn't expect there would be any problem.

"What about the faces?" Akemi asked, pointing to the faces of the row of dolls.

Yuri looked over the faces of these dolls... Yes, each one was sculpted based on his most familiar model, high school girl Akemi Kakizaki.

"Same here?" Yuri said, only realizing he had said the wrong thing after he had already spoken.

"You mean you sculpted my face into those things in the first place?" Mingmei's voice was filled with despair.

"..." Sure enough, that was the problem. Yuri immediately activated the remedy he had prepared long ago, "You can think of those as being sculpted based on my face—"

"—Isn't your face the same as mine!?"

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 arguing for a while, the two stopped.

It was clear that Akemi wasn't taking it seriously and was in a good mood.

"Did they receive some good news from Okumura-ya?" This was the only possibility Yuri could think of.

What else could it be? Did you suddenly find that gas prices had dropped when you went to fill up your tank?

"You finally asked—it's true, we won't have to take the blame anymore soon!" Mingmei's eyes shone with hope.

...It seems she's still somewhat dissatisfied with this matter, so Yuri needs to be careful not to trigger her anger.

"What does this mean? Will someone take over what we're doing?" Yuri probed.

"That's right, exactly! The situation at sea has calmed down, and a small portion of them will return in about three days."

"Soul Hunters?" Yuri understood what the high school girl in front of him was talking about; she was the one the two of them had been complaining about who should have been there but wasn't.

Although Yuri didn't know much about the Spirit Hunters, based on Minmei's few words, they should at least be professionals, which did put him at ease.

"Hmm... what do they think of our actions?" Yuri thought of another question and was curious about it.

If the response is critical, such as "Your actions were too hasty and destroyed a lot of evidence," then let Akemi handle it. She should be quite familiar with those people, so she won't get much of a scolding.

“They haven’t come back yet, how would I know their opinion?” Akemi looked at Yuri with a strange look. “But Uncle Okumura thinks they shouldn’t be dissatisfied, and from what I know, they are a group of people who value results more than process—we stopped the fire spirits from spreading further, isn’t that a good result?”

Yuri sometimes does doubt that he is overthinking things.

Chapter Seventy-Five: Interlude - Heritage Discovery

It's been almost a week since the last intense and exciting battle... or to be precise, six days.

During this period, Yuri quickly recovered and prepared for any potential problems.

As seen above, the problem did not occur.

He had assumed something would happen before the Spirit Hunter returned, since, whoever was causing trouble, the fewer obstacles, the better.

However, no problem occurred.

Once Yuri calmed down and thought things through, he realized his problem—that "whoever it was" couldn't possibly know that the Spirit Hunter was about to return, so of course he couldn't start accelerating the situation.

He wasn't completely idle during this period.

The next day, at a different time, he contacted the reporter and informed him that "the spontaneous combustion should have stopped."

The reporter sounded a little disappointed; she had even found another location that appeared to be the site of the accident—but she was still grateful to Yuri for helping her reduce wasted effort.

Yuri offered to fulfill his promise to check on the editor-in-chief's condition once he recovered, but she said she wasn't in a hurry and hoped Yuri could contact her again in about two weeks. She also hoped that Yuri could explain to her how he had stopped the fire spirits by then.

Although she didn't say it aloud, Hojo Reie seemed to mean that she was currently tracking another matter, and even if Yuri went, she wouldn't have enough time to coordinate.

This is also something that can't be helped.

Yuri then inquired about the situation with cult members, and the reporter indicated that this was also one of the things she was paying attention to.

Just as the reporter was meeting with Yuri, the police came and took away a young cult member. The other cult members did not resist the police and subsequently dispersed and went into hiding.

The reporter wasn't on the scene, so the opportunity to catch up and find the cult leader's whereabouts was missed. This wasn't Yuri's fault, but if Yuri were to ask, she didn't have any clues to offer at the moment.

Well, at least he wasn't thrown back into the basement, so Yuri was relieved.

In comparison, how exactly to tell the story of how he stopped the fire spirit is a problem.

"I fought the spirit of the fire for a hundred rounds (each round lasting three seconds), using every trick in the book, including punches, kicks, and iron head techniques. I managed not to be beaten to death, and then somehow, I forcibly created a weakness in it, and finally won." — Is that right?

It feels like even the reporters can't use what they say.

Perhaps we should consult the collected books on mysticism and see how those people exaggerate their knowledge.

That concludes the reporter's story for now.

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.

Another takeaway was that Yuri deciphered another notebook.

Yuri chose the first one to interpret this time, just as he had planned some time ago, in case there was a table of contents here.

And thinking about it carefully, it would be foolish of me to read it from back to front—if Yuri were in a life-or-death situation and had to write his last words, he would definitely put the most important part at the beginning.

For example, phrases like "The murderer is XXX" should definitely be placed at the beginning. Leaving a clue greatly increases the difficulty for the reader; who can guess a clue that they don't know how to solve? If you add occult content, it becomes even more difficult.

In this specific case, such a ruthless killer would definitely destroy everything given the chance, whether or not he leaves a code, or whether or not he is discovered.

Yuri saw the same twisted characters as seals in the knowledge and the final notes, which is irrefutable evidence. In this respect, the murderer treated everyone the same.

At least at the time, Yuri was quite impressed with his own brilliant idea.

Maybe we can find a way to achieve instant success?

So he went up.

The gains... well, not exactly a loss, but definitely not as good as I'd hoped.

First and foremost is the least useful thing: a string of names. If Yuri wasn't mistaken, it should be the names of the volunteer who left this record and the friends who had failed along with him.

It's not that Yuri disrespected them; these people struggled to leave a record in their final moments, which helped Yuri in some way—although it hasn't had any direct impact yet, it at least gave Yuri a deeper understanding of his own power and potential power—for which Yuri was very grateful.

But as the apocalypse loomed, these people thought of leaving their names behind first… This was not within Yuri's expectations. He couldn't say it wasn't human nature; if it were him, he would also try to avoid being forgotten… But he was still disappointed because it wasn't something that could be used immediately.

Regardless, Yuri wrote down these names, thinking he might see them somewhere in the future... He had forcibly figured out how these names were used, and by finding out the situation of any one of them, he could gain a deeper understanding of the background of this notebook.

Although, for some reason, he had a feeling that it would be difficult and likely to be in vain.

The second part is a brief overview of their system, which has no practical effect but is very helpful in deepening understanding.

Yuri spent a lot of effort to ensure that his understanding was accurate, or at least that he knew what he knew and what he didn't know.

Within this system, people like them have multiple names, each describing their identity from a different perspective.

This includes: Dharma Masters, those who practice vows, and those who are awakened.

The term "magician" refers to the power they wield; they believe their actions involve interfering in the lower realms through manipulation of higher magic. While not explicitly stated, the phrase conveys a confident belief that most magical stories in the world were created by people like them.

Yuri was unsure whether to believe this, after all, vampires and werewolves must also have some degree of self-interest involved.

By the way, Yuri didn't quite understand what the Upper Realm referred to, but it should be the source of magic, while the Lower Realm refers to the ordinary world, this universe.

"Vowers" refers to the way they exercise their power. Through their own will or beliefs, they guide the power of the upper realm down to influence the lower realm—this process is called "voyage," meaning that they make a wish to the upper realm and the upper realm responds.

Yuri felt this didn't sound very plausible—what if the higher realms didn't respond?

In conclusion, the recorder of this notebook believed that the volunteer is not the source of power, but rather its guide. Power does not originate from the volunteer's belief itself, but is guided down from the higher realms through that belief—the strength of the belief determines the amount that can be guided, not the amount generated. In any case, because the power of the higher realms is nearly infinite, its application is not much different from generating power oneself.

Yuri was quite skeptical of this. He did not feel any external power being injected, and he had not only consumed his faith, but also his spiritual essence.

Or... could it be that Yuri didn't know how to summon the power of the upper realm, so he had to rely entirely on his own efforts?

Upon realizing this possibility, Yuri almost immediately began searching the entire page repeatedly, trying to find a way to "summon the power of the higher realms".

Of course, it failed. The author believes there's no need to mention such an obvious point; those who practice vows can certainly guide power from the higher realms, so how can someone who can't consider themselves a vow-practitioner?

Yu was very unhappy about being dismissed from the volunteer ranks, and the reason is obvious.

He speculated maliciously that perhaps the reason these people all perished was because they couldn't internalize the power. After all, according to the descriptions in the notes and Yuri's deductions, disregarding the part about guiding the energy from the upper realm, the Volunteers were nothing more than mortals.

It's not that he believes the power that comes from within is necessarily stronger than that that comes from external sources, but it would be too dangerous to be completely detached from external sources and just a mortal being.

The term "Awakened Ones" refers to their origin. They develop abilities different from ordinary people, a process that is neither inherited through bloodlines nor taught through secret knowledge, but rather a personal awakening and enlightenment—a mysterious spiritual process that has not yet been fully studied, and may even be impossible to study.

The biggest obstacle to research is that, as a personal process, only the awakened individual can clearly experience what happens during awakening, and at this point, it's almost impossible for them to notice what they're researching. Meanwhile, those who already know a great deal of background information and are well-prepared for research—their own awakening process has long since passed.

In other words, every mortal can become an Awakened One, and no specific understanding is required. In fact, the author believes that the only commonality among Awakened Ones is that they are all mortals—the author emphasizes mortals, which Yuri speculates is to exclude supernatural beings such as vampires and werewolves—and how this process actually takes place remains a mystery.

The author believes that awakened beings are still ordinary human beings, only different in spirit and soul.

What impressed Yuri was the author's declaration that the title and power of the Awakened should be given to all of humanity, not just a select few lucky individuals. They put in a great deal of effort for this, and even their eventual downfall may well be related to their hard work and struggle.

If it were Yuri, while he wouldn't object to others possessing power, he hadn't even considered actively helping others gain power.

Of course, not all awakened beings may have this thought; it may only be the group that wrote the records that thought so... and they should all be dead by now.

It's a bit of a shame. Judging from the attitude they showed in their words, if they were still alive, Yuri could have openly come to them for advice, and they would have readily told him anything that wasn't confidential.

It's a pity.

After these parts, which are likely to be of greater help to Mingmei than to Yuri, we finally arrive at the part that is most beneficial to Yuri at the moment.

Some of these are clearly specially selected spell patterns, covering almost all areas and varying intensities.

"Forms" is a collective term for the meditation methods discovered by Yuri. They are specific ways of performing certain spells, created by practitioners through years of inheritance and summarization. By learning forms, practitioners can transform reliance on personal skill into refined and efficient execution.

It's roughly equivalent to creating something from nothing and turning it into a still life sketch.

While the spell still requires the wisher to have at least the ability to cast it, it greatly enhances the spell's effect—which is essentially the same as reducing the difficulty of casting spells in many ways. After all, while wishers can easily manipulate the world through their wishes, they also have to contend with the difficulty of precisely controlling their own desires.

Although Yuri neither could nor wanted to learn it, he could at least use it to understand what each of the fundamental mysteries could accomplish.

Then, in the best-case scenario, reproduce it directly using your own abilities.

In fact, he saw something that looked very familiar.

Ghost Shield.

Some time ago, he developed this ability on his own—a shield to defend against spirits.

Sure enough, this wasn't something he had invented himself... Although he had expected it, Yuri was still a little shocked when he actually discovered it.

By comparing his own ability application with the descriptions in his formulas, he found some areas that needed improvement.

According to the standard description, the ghost shield used in general should form a barrier that prevents ghosts from passing through and cannot be easily destroyed. If the ghost's power is strong enough, it can penetrate the barrier but will not destroy it.

It's not that you can't do what Yuri did—no matter how much power you have, you have to destroy the barrier first before you can hit Yuri behind it—but this approach is considered inefficient. Such an action essentially involves using your own power to wear down the ghost, which greatly reduces the spell's duration.

Yuri has been feeling this way lately too—while it's clearly more advantageous to take damage while shielding the shield than to take damage himself, against slightly stronger enemies, simply holding the shield is enough to wear him down. Perhaps we should research a variant based on this established pattern, changing the shield's role from extra health to damage reduction.

Yuri didn't completely agree with every word of the established rules. For example, he believed that in some situations, a protective barrier that could completely neutralize an enemy's attack would be more valuable.

For example... when you can't be hit at all?

In addition, another question was raised to Yuri, which he had not thought about in detail before, but now he had to face this doubt.

This shield is specifically marked as effective only against ghosts or other supernatural effects related to death—it is ineffective against spirits unless it is a dead spirit (and a spirit that represents such a vast concept as death could probably blow Yuri to pieces with just a breath).

What did Yuri use to ward off the fire spirits? There don't seem to be many possible answers.

To put it bluntly, it's becoming increasingly clear that Yuri can also wield the power of the mysteries of the spirit.

Chapter Seventy-Six: Undercurrents

Yuri spent the rest of those six days training new uses for the shield.

The improvements to the wall protection are effective, but there is still a distance to go before we can master them to the same level of proficiency.

It's a long distance.

After asking Akemi to play the role of "the attacker who suddenly appeared," Yuri became convinced of this.

At first, he had the illusion that his mastery of the two defense modes was no different except for their intensity, that they were already usable, and that with more practice he could use them even more effectively.

Then Yuri asked Minmei to play the role of the attacker who suddenly appeared—to have Minmei circle around him, and whenever she raised her right hand in a fist gesture, Yuri would activate the shield.

Mingmei suggested adding feints, such as not counting raising one's hand, which Yuri thought was reasonable and agreed to.

Then every time Yuri "reacted" to the spell, the result was the shield that jumped out of the extra life version. Indeed, there were a few times when he seemed to have successfully cast the new version, but he knew the reason was that he had been consciously preparing the spell—or that he had taken a little time to think after seeing Minmei raise her fist.

It wasn't very long, but Yuri didn't have much hope for his ability to think quickly in battle. When he had a dialogue with the Fire Pillar during the battle, he already felt the inadequacy of his ability to perform multiple operations at the same time.

The initial short-term goal of effectively utilizing the new shield has been achieved. Yuri is able to activate the new shield, significantly reducing the effectiveness of "weaker" attacks.

However, the long-term goals set at the same time still seem far away. Perhaps the current training methods are not right. He is still unable to "instantly judge which method to use based on a sudden situation and use the correct response method instinctively."

Haste makes waste; let's wait and see.