Chapter 82: Traces

“Strange…”

At that moment, Yanase Takuma stood up with a puzzled look on his face.

He held the detector in his hand, circled the area once more, and showed a look of disappointment.

During the time Ephnel and Yanase Kaoru were talking, Yanase Takuma had already scanned the entire area within a hundred-meter radius.

Now, his forehead was beaded with sweat.

He took out a tissue to wipe it off and came over to Yanase Kaoru.

“There is indeed a reaction here, and I’ve estimated that the location should be somewhere around here, that can’t be wrong. But I’ve taken some measurements, and the preservation state of the third-waveform here isn’t very good… Could it be that too much time has passed after all…”

“It’s dissipated?”

“The data is all here, and the location has been recorded. Take a look.”

Yanase Kaoru took the detector from his hand, and after comparing the data one by one, she also frowned slightly.

“That’s impossible. According to the time records, the Erosion here definitely occurred a week ago. Theoretically, the residue left here should be enough for us to identify and collect. Why does this look… like it’s been more than two weeks…”

The fluctuations in this set of data were somewhat bizarre.

They didn’t look like traces left from a week ago at all, but rather from two or even three weeks ago.

This situation left both Yanase Takuma and his wife feeling perplexed.

“Yeah, that’s why I find it so strange.”

“Dad? Mom? What’s wrong? Did you find something?”

Ephnel came to her parents’ side and asked.

“We didn’t find anything, or rather, it seems we’ve arrived a step too late,” Yanase Kaoru handed the detector back to Yanase Takuma and sighed.

She stuck her hands in her pockets and looked around, trying to find the next clue.

She chose her words carefully and said softly, “Actually, there’s a time limit for us to search for and collect these residual ‘traces.’ Generally speaking, the collection must be done within ten days to ensure the validity of the experimental data we need. Otherwise, there will be a significant deviation.”

“It’s like a drop of ink falling into a pond. If we extract water from different locations within a few seconds, we can definitely still find traces of the ink in some of the samples, and it would be visible to the naked eye. But if we go back after a minute or an hour, this drop of ink has likely already dispersed and disappeared. Even if we use highly precise instruments to test it again, we may not get valid and reasonable results.”

Yanase Kaoru thought for a moment and said.

“And it’s the same for the ‘traces.’ Usually, a ‘trace’ itself is an energy signal left in a specific spatial location. This form of energy is not just left in one place, but can be detected throughout the natural world. But obviously, there are huge differences in their peak values, change values, and frequency bands, and it’s not limited to just that. To identify the existence of ‘traces,’ we must use instruments to collect and record this information, and the time limit for this ‘dissipation’ is ten days. Effective collection can only be done within ten days. We decided to come back this time partly with the intention of bringing this data back.”

“If it’s ten days…”

It had only been seven days since the headquarters building was attacked.

“Does this time limit not change?”

“It does. Generally speaking, this so-called time limit is of course not set in stone. If there are a lot of people active here within these ten days, then the ‘traces’ will be affected and dissipate faster. It could be as short as seven days, or even disappear completely in six days. It’s like stirring the water with your hand where the ink drop fell; the ink would quickly dissipate into nothing, right?”

Yanase Kaoru explained.

“Of course, the principle behind it is not exactly the same. The ‘stirring’ we are talking about doesn’t come from tangible things like ‘water’ or ‘air,’ but from a ‘magnetic field.'”

“The Earth’s magnetic field?”

“Not quite. The so-called ‘magnetic field’ is currently just a placeholder term, without an official name,” Yanase Takuma shook his head and took over the conversation.

“Because this is a research conclusion that your mother and I have not yet published.”

He continued, “The magnetic field we’re talking about here refers to each person’s unique attribute. Every independent living organism has its own unique characteristics. This is different from the concept of a biomagnetic field in our human scientific field. This is a conclusion your mother and I reached while studying ‘Remnants,’ and it’s also the theoretical basis for our research experiments. We believe that these ‘magnetic fields’ are a type of ‘substance’ that was considered to be the ‘soul’ in the legends of ancient times. And we have also made a conjecture, believing that Erosion Organisms also rely on this ‘magnetic field’ to identify humans and launch attacks.”

“Erosion Organisms attack by identifying human souls?”

Ephnel was taken aback.

It was the first time she had heard her father’s theory.

The concept of a soul had been completely refuted back in the old era, and even now, the soul was considered a product of ethereal ghost legends, something that did not exist in the real world.

“Of course, this is just a very brief, general summary. The complete research results are still in our hands because this conclusion lacks crucial clues. But at the same time, it is a vital part of the experiment that was stolen from us and led it to its final conclusion. Without the support of this research theory, it would be impossible for those studies to achieve a breakthrough in a short period. This is one of the restraining measures we have against those people, so we have never officially published this conjecture. We are still pretending to work for those people, so Naoto, you must not tell anyone about our conversation either. Otherwise, if those people find out, things might not be so simple.”

“I… I understand…”

“Next, your dad and I will use those two terminals here to collect some data. After that, we want to go to the location of the Erosion disaster that happened three days ago. Naoto, sorry to trouble you again…”

…

The car headed towards the central sports stadium.

That was the location where Ephnel held her concert three days ago, and also the site of the third major Erosion disaster.

At this moment, Ephnel was concentrating on driving, while the Yanase couple were in the back seat, processing the data they had just obtained.

“Wrong… absolutely wrong…”

Yanase Takuma’s voice came from behind.

Ephnel glanced in the rearview mirror and asked, “Dad, did you find something?”

“Your mother and I were doing data analysis… and we discovered some strange phenomena.”

Yanase Takuma’s tone was laced with astonishment.

Ephnel frowned slightly.

“What is it?”

“Let me explain,” Yanase Kaoru took over, her tone more solemn than ever before.

“Naoto, the attack on your Order Organization’s headquarters was probably not a coincidence, but a long-premeditated attack.”

Ephnel’s eyes flickered slightly, but she had already brought up this speculation with Masaki Hinaki before.

Given her parents’ insight, it wasn’t surprising that they could discover this.

…