Shinrei Tantei Yakumo volume 10 - Signpost of the Spirit
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo novel translation
Volume 10 — Signpost of the Spirit
Yakumo, who had lost his ability to see spirits of the dead due to the injury to his left eye inflicted by his nemesis—Nanase Miyuki—began to lose the meaning of his existence and fell into despair.
Amidst the situation, Nao—Yakumo’s younger sister and last surviving blood relative—had gone missing whilst possessed. The key to finding Nao seemed to lie in the recurring spiritual phenomenon at a certain apartment building, but…
What would Haruka do in the face of Yakumo’s inaction, believing there was nothing left he could do?
The popular supernatural mystery Shinrei Tantei Yakumo enters its final stage!
been spending a lot of time (and money welp! RIP wallet) dressing up these Vyn babies~ it’s so fun since the dolls are SO. DAMN. ADORABLE!
didn’t make the dolls myself, but the I put together the outfits using the ready-to-wear doll clothes and accessories sold from all over the internet :)
PLEASE DO NOT REPOST MY PHOTOS ON OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA SITES LIKE TWITTER!
Just finished re-reading the Main Story from Chapter 1 to 8 and I am once again blown away by MHY’s storytelling. In hindsight, the Chekhov’s guns (yes, there are A LOT!) were cleverly written into the dialogues and integrated in the character designs. It is possible to solve SOME of the mysteries if you carefully follow the clues that were spread throughout the chapters.
Chapter 8, in particular, is really, really good. There's no boring or wasted scene AT ALL. Everything is relevant to either the chapter’s case or the overarching plot. It is such a satisfying read because it gives a feeling of closure, but at the same time, it introduces new mysteries to be solved. It feels like a season finale tbh. We’ll probably enter a new arc in Chapter 9.
More raving and ranting about Chapter 8 and the overall plot under the cut. I’m writing my questions and theories here so I have something to refer to once new chapters are released :)
SPOILER WARNING FOR MAIN STORY CHAPTERS 7 AND 8!!!
(Content not yet available on global server at the time of writing.)
.
Hands down, Chapter 8 is the best, and not just because it's a Vyn-centric chapter! I cried so hard over the NPCs’ story :( The plot is THAT good and the pacing is just right. I can’t recall a dull moment in the chapter, and there are 17 story parts, including the final trial!! Chapter 7 is great because of its plot twists and Marius was very cunning in it so it was amusing, but it can’t beat the thrill from reading Chapter 8 imo.
I think we might get a Svart arc since at the end of Chapter 8, the NXX team agreed that they've pretty much exhausted the Heirson-related clues located in Stellis City. They found out that the sample that Artem got from Jovi Vance (sent to him by Simon Bloodworth, the presumed dead Materials Director of Heirson) is a drug that contains NXX. This drug is more developed/sophisticated than the sample that Xiao Ren (no English name yet; Heirson’s lead researcher for the NXX-based “elixir of life”) gave them from the Heirson’s lab near the Opaline Village. They all reached the conclusion that there may be some other entity out there that’s secretly conducting research and development of NXX-based drugs and it looks like their progress is more advanced than Heirson’s.
Here are the some of the remaining leads (at least afaik) at the end of Chapter 8 along with my own speculations/theories:
#1. Simon Bloodworth: truly dead or still alive?
He’s presumed dead, but his body was never found. He was the one distributing the NXX raw material in Stellis City after stealing some from the stocks procured by Tyson Turner (Heirson CEO) and Xiao Ren in the auction on Pluto.
How did Simon get the more sophisticated NXX drug and where did he get it from? Tracing Simon’s actions from the past few years may reveal the NXX distribution route from the source to Stellis City. Another point: why did he send the sample to Jovi Vance who claimed he never met the dead man? The answer to the second question is likely related to how and why Tyson suddenly became critically ill with gastric cancer.
#2. The illegal NXX trade on the Pluto cruise ship
According to the transactions record/accounting book in the dead Svartian "art" (but really NXX raw material) dealer's room, it has been sold to quite a number of people for some time already. Selling art pieces is their front since there has to be a "legal" exchange of goods and currency that they can show if something happens, which is probably why participation in the auction onboard Pluto was necessary. In this way, they can legally argue that the onboard auction house is "clean" and no shady business is going on.
Now, all of these beg the question: where did the Svartian dealer get his stocks of the NXX raw material in the first place? Since this illegal trade has been going on for years already, there must be a constant source with a stable supply of NXX somewhere – could it be Svart? The fact that the product is sold by a Svart-national on a cruise ship owned by a nobleman from Svart is very suspicious.
#3. The connection between the NXX raw material trade and the Svart Royal Family
We already know that a member of the Svart Royal Family owns Pluto from Vyn’s briefing at the beginning of Chapter 8. It was also revealed that the King is the supreme head of the Church of Svart so the latter may be involved in this nasty business, too. Does this mean the sale of NXX raw material has the Royal Family's/Church's "blessing" and/or “protection” because the trade has been going on onboard Pluto for years already?
Vyn received the special invitation to join the Pluto luxury cruise from his father because the latter wanted to investigate the auction on board after getting a tip. It seems like Duke Haspran is on a mission to uncover whatever it is the Svart Royal Family and the Church of Svart are secretly up to. Could this be related to why Vyn is in Stellis? OR maybe why he joined Giann von Hagen and Neil Hume to establish the NXX investigation team?
#4. The laboratory where Jerome Adams et al. are working
We still have no idea where Jerome and his boss are working from. We know that Jerome has been in contact with Tyson and the latter wanted to take down “that investigation team” as seen in the opening scene of Chapter 5 (Part I). Xiao Ren from Heirson’s Opaline Village lab didn’t recognize Jerome when they met onboard on Pluto so they might be working for different organizations, although Jerome knew who Xiao Ren was. Jerome might be with either Crimson Biotech or Pax Pharmaceuticals (tho I am more inclined towards the former)... or another subsidiary of Heirson perhaps?
#5. The new character decked in a red suit
A new character appeared in the final scene of Chapter 8, where he conversed with Jerome and his boss in the unknown laboratory. He seemed to know what Jerome did onboard Pluto, and was aware of the research they were conducting.
My guess is he’s affiliated with Crimson Biotech, probably its founder, Christopher Cromwell, who is mentioned in the Big Data Lab entry for Crimson Biotech Ltd (see below). If this were the case, then he could be involved in the international NXX trade since “the Cromwell family has been gradually shifting business abroad for the past decades” and Crimson Biotech is one of the two big companies, along with Pax Pharmaceuticals, who had access to NXX before it was banned 25 years ago due its dangerous effects on humans. It would’ve been easy to get away with it because the records of all the collected samples of NXX were lost in “the war” (mentioned by Vyn during MC’s briefing in Chapter 5 Part I). Also, there are very few organizations and institutions that have the technology to detect NXX. If we are to believe Marius’ claim that Pax has nothing to do with the illegal NXX trade and drug development, then it could be Crimson... or maybe some other international entity that is involved.
I really hope there will be a Svart arc (or at least a chapter) because I want to see Vyn and Rosa/MC working closely with his father T__T Also, I want to know Vyn’s real reason for moving to Stellis and joining the original NXX team. How and where did he meet Giann? What were the meetings like with the founding members? I WANT SOME ANSWERS!! I’m looking forward to the day I return to this post to check which theories I got right ^__^
thinking about vyn richter and his citizenship process (for an AU, which i was planning to post and then i got derailed. it happens a lot)
(disclaimer: i did basic google searches for this. i'm not an expert.)
483 words, not too long i hope
so this is his lil tidbit in big data lab
now, vyn is a foreigner ready to renounce his citizenship from svart. the time frame didn't sit right with me at the beginning. assuming stellis has a residency period (which in north american countries tends to be within 3 to 5 years) that means that vyn must have been in stellis from 2023 to 2025 to get his citizenship, right? or would that process get accelerated bc he's the son of a duke?
so i started digging a little more and reading about prince harry. sam what the fuck, you ask, why are you reading about prince harry? bc prince harry could become a u.s. citizen and he's the closest case to a case study i can get with vyn. so! if prince harry chooses to apply for apply for u.s. citizenship he has to renounce his titles.
so, mirroring that a bit, vyn would have to renounce his title. done and done, i don't think vyn wanted it anyway. what's next? well, he could go through and try a visa-residence pathway and leave it at that, but then that would mean he'd have been stellis for longer and that would mean big data lab is wrong. or... he could try to get citizenship another way.
see, there is a path for citizenship when it comes to 'exemplar individuals'. what qualifies vyn as an exemplar individual? the giannovyn research center. we know that the giannovyn center couldn't have existed prior to vyn coming to stellis, so within that year or years vyn had to propose and wait for the construction of the research center. how long does it take to construct a building? could they have been in contact prior to the building? when did giann meet vyn? anyway, inadvertently or on purpose, giann sponsored vyn to become a citizen of stellis.
going specifically off of what the u.s. does, the 'exemplar visa' to citizenship takes roughly about a year. so vyn could have moved to stellis late 2027/early 2028and gotten his citizenship in 2028 or in mid to late 2028 and gotten his citizenship in 2029. that fits the info from big data lab a little better.
which leads me to another point: vyn has only been a citizen of stellis for 2 years (since the game begins in 2030) so either vyn has explored every nook and cranny of stellis in 2 years, or he still doesn't know much of stellis. or! if we think that he's been in stellis for 3-5 years, i can see him being a bit comfortable with stellis.
so vyn has two possible scenarios:
standard citizenship route with residence of 3-5 years which would explain the construction of the gianni vyn research center at a much more leisurely pace
or
exemplar visa to citizen which would allow for a one year time frame that fits the info given by big data lab.
and yeah. that's what goes on in my brain sometimes.
May I offer another possibility? I’ll hide it under the cut because of spoilers for stories not yet released on global server as of writing.
It’s also possible that Vyn’s mother helped him with the naturalization process because it is implied in Chapter 4 of his Personal Story + 1st Anniversary SSR that his mother is from the country where Stellis City is. Let’s call it Country A for brevity.
Vyn may have claimed citizenship in Country A by the principle of Jus sanguinis (citizenship by bloodline). In this case, he could’ve inherited the citizenship of his mother, regardless of his birthplace. We don’t know the laws in both Country A and Svart, and I’m not a law expert so this is just a speculation, but some things would make more sense if this were the case:
#1. Vyn taking his mother’s last name when he moved to Stellis City
For someone who was trying to start a new life in a different country with a new identity, Vyn could’ve used any name of his choosing, but why did he have to use Jill Richter’s family name? It is revealed in the 1st Anniversary SSR that they are not particularly close and that he only ever contacts her for favors or requests. Also, Jill doesn’t want people to know about their relationship and even warns him about revealing it to others.
It is possible that he is using his mother’s last name because he needed to be added to her family register (under the “Richter family”) in Country A to expedite the process of naturalization. He had to be recognized by his mother and her family to be able to inherit Jill’s citizenship since he was born out of wedlock in a different country. (Take note that family registries are more common in Asian countries, and Stellis is said to be patterned after the city of Shanghai in China.)
#2. This part of Vyn and Raphael’s conversation from the RRG card:
Vyn makes it clear that he did not take the family name “Richter” out of sentimentality. There must have been another reason - a very important one at that - for him to seek his estranged mother who left him and his father more than two decades ago and take her name. His naturalization could be the unspoken reason in this conversation.
Everything written above are my headcanons for Vyn’s naturalization so take them with a grain of salt :) but I tried my best to align them with canon Vyn lore. I also don’t have a clear idea about the residency requirements for naturalization because they vary per country, but maybe being sponsored by a parent who is already a citizen of the country could make things easier and faster.
It’s officially announced on global server, about half a year in advance vs. CN server timeline!! Good luck to all of us with our 1st Anniversary S-chips savings.
hi! do you perhaps know where I can watch vyn's 4th personal chapter?
hello! you can watch the recordings from CN server on Bilibili (the CN version of YouTube), but the videos are in Simplified Chinese. if you're asking about the English translation for it tho, I'm not sure if anyone has done it yet. hope that helps :)
Can u suggest me some fanfiction rosa x vyn >|||<?
hello there! tbh, I haven't been reading fanfics lately so I cannot recommend recent ones, but when I just started playing ToT last year, I read some and particularly enjoyed the works of Gloryofluv and RoryMercury on AO3, and @alstroemeriadissonance (mostly NSFW!) here on Tumblr.
you may also check out the Vyn x Rosa + Vyn x Reader tags on AO3 for more fics :) hope that helps!
a long, long time ago, when the official livestream for themis’ first anniversary happened, they also announced the artbook and an anon asked me to mention it here when it gets revealed
and here it is!!! the guys look hella hot!!!
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4760298945253996 (for the video)
The summary for Vyn’s Sweet Chapter is almost done. YAY!
I’ve decided to do line-by-line translations for all the important VynRosa scenes. The corresponding video recordings with English subtitles will be posted on YouTube. This is why the subbed video of the French Kiss Trick scene was suddenly posted the other day: I was practicing :)
A large chunk of Sweet Chapter focuses on the NPC’s story so I will only be taking the snippets with the Vyn fluff for the video translations. Sorry, I don’t think I can do all of the 70+ minutes of Sweet Chapter since I’m so dependent on multiple machine translators :(
Working on this particular story is really fun and heartwarming because there’s so much love, trust, and understanding between Vyn and MC/Rosa. Their relationship is just so... refreshing and very mature (except when they act spoiled/childish). As usual, their affection for each other shines through in every scene, sometimes to the point of utter cheesiness! These things make all the effort and struggle absolutely worth it.
Anyway... For now, you may check out the translation of the “after story” conversations with Vyn, which has been posted already. It’s a sneak preview of how sweet the “Sweet Chapter” is. Please look forward to the rest of the story!
