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Ruri propped herself up, staring up at the three floating Judges. The room around them was eerily silent.

“There’s only been one instance of doing that, long before my time. And that was a dedicated force of living people, who was trained ahead of time. We don’t… I mean, there are a large number of people on call for intel. But back then the tactics were different,” she said.

“We are aware of the current situation. But even if we exorcise all of tonight’s victims, you know they will need weeks, months even of training time,” the Judges replied.

“What did you do last time?” Naoya asked.

Everyone looked at him, including the Judges. Aki shushed him, but three Judges just circled around each other before they came to hover just above Naoya.

“When the film negative is burned, the energy contained within is released back to its place of origin,” one of the Judges said gently.

Yet Naoya was just stunned into silence by the fact that this otherworldly being would go out of its way to explain these things just to him. Everyone in this place was just so nice it bordered on uncanny.

“Uh. Thank you?” he said.

The Judges nodded at once and turned back to Ruri. Then Naoya cleared his throat.

“So you destroyed the film in the past to return the energy? What if we just tell everyone to delete the photos now?”

Ruri shook her head. “We tried that. It made no difference. It’s not so much the act of destroying the pictures, it’s mostly the willingness of the creator to give them up, give them back, which frees the energy. Deleting is not the same. There are always backups, copies, ways to restore data. You don’t actually let it go. Besides, people take photos as memories. Getting them to delete snapshots of their life isn’t easy.”

“Then… Mhm… What if we ask people to upload their photos to us? Send them over with the condition that the picture is dedicated to the place it was taken at,” Naoya said. “We could make it a competition… a game. Something with a prize?”

Karin perked up. “That could work. Something about cultural heritage. Appreciation.”

“Even if it does, it’s a long-term plan. In the short term, ghosts are rushing into the living world by the hundreds,” Ruri said. “We need to take these special talismans to the teams in Shikoku , Kyushu and Okinawa. I’m going to Hokkaido. And here, these are for Honshu. Distribute them to the teams. They enable them to exorcise ghosts quickly—bypassing the Judges. Don’t look at me like that. They gave them to me. Desperate times…”

“But exorcism without proper judgement will all send them directly…” Naoya said and trailed off.

“Yes. But saving human lives is more important. If possessed for too long, the human will lose their life energy, just like you experienced. We are sympathetic to the ghosts, but we need priorities. Since too many have already crossed over, we need to switch to eradicating those that have already taken root in the living world. Fighting them off has failed. We’re just not enough people.”

Naoya stared at the white paper in his hand. He couldn’t read the red characters written on them, but they looked menacing to him.

“I can be the one to save them,” Naoya said. “With my eye, rifts can be closed instantly and it will also help Hinako. Let me do it, so that less ghosts can cross over.”

“No. It will destroy your body to use the ability so often,” Aki said with emphasis.

“If he offers it, he should do it,” Ruri said.

“What? No!” Aki shouted.

“We have no choice. It’s one life against hundreds… thousands, if we can’t quell the initial onslaught. We can only work out a long time plan if there’s a world to plan in.”

“But taking in and expelling so much energy again and again… It’ll break you.”

“What happens to Hinako if it does kill me?” Naoya asked.

“She’ll depart your body together with your soul. I don’t know if the Judges will hold your death against her, but it will not harm her own soul,” Ruri said.

Naoya took a deep breath. “Good. That’s good. Set up a teleport for me to return to and siphon energy, with a team on standby. I’ll jump back and forth. At least let me do Tokyo.”

“No,” Aki said.

“Alright. Make it happen,” Ruri commanded and several people in the room sprang into action. “Let Bai Rong give you something fortifying. We’ll move as soon as everything is set up.”

“No!!” Aki yelled again. He grabbed Naoya and held his head against his chest. “You can’t let him do this! You said you don’t need unnecessary heroes!”

“This isn’t a matter of personal feelings. I would hate to lock you up for this, since you’re one of our best fighters.”

“Ruri,” Aki said with emphasis.

“That is my name.”

“You will not—”

“Listen to me. We’re being overrun. If this keeps up, possession rates are going to skyrocket. People will die.”

Aki held Naoya closer. “Naoya might die.”

“One against many. It’s an easy choice to make.”

“Ruri!”

“Aki…” Naoya said gently and stood up. He took Aki’s face between both hands. “I won’t die. You’ll be there with me, protecting me, won’t you?”

Large tears rolled down Aki’s face. “I don’t know what to do. I wasn’t supposed to feel anything, and now I feel close to breaking.”

Naoya put his arms around him and held Aki close. “No one has ever advocated for me like this. Thank you.”

“It’s not—”

“Ruri, we’re ready,” an agent said.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Aki wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve and drew in a wet breath. “If you die on me, I’m personally dragging you to work here.”

“I couldn’t imagine anything better.”