I planted a sacred tree in Tokyo.

Chapter 278 The Darkness of the Town

"Yao-to, you're awake?"

When Tatsuki Yuuto opened his eyes, he found himself lying in a hospital.

"Saki?"

Turning his head slightly, Tatsuki Hayato, whose body was sore and weak, saw the smiling face of the girl with the side ponytail, and the sullen face of the mountain god Ryuji next to him.

"Ryuji, why are we in the hospital?"

"Do not you remember?"

Although Yamagami Ryuji's tone was still not very good, he still raised his hand and tapped his temple.

"Think carefully about everything that happened last night."

last night?

Having just moved back to his hometown, his father suddenly sent him a text message filled with the feeling of 'farewell'; then he and Saki went out to search for him, and were immediately besieged by 'Netherworld Slaves'; at the critical moment, his childhood friend, Yamagami Ryuji, came to his aid, and then they encountered two masked men in black robes.
"Where are the two men in black robes?"

Lying on the hospital bed, Tatsuki Yuuto subconsciously tried to get up, but his body stiffened halfway due to soreness.

"Ah, lie down first, you've overexerted yourself."

The girl Saki quickly stepped forward and helped the distorted-faced Tatsuki Hayato back onto the hospital bed, making the already sour-faced Yamagami Ryuji's expression even darker.

"Let me explain,"

However, when it comes to serious matters, this 'monk' still has the right to speak.

“Last night, we were cornered by two men in black robes. You suddenly unleashed your power, repelling them and tearing more than ten ‘Nether Slaves’ to shreds.”

He then collapsed and couldn't get up. Saki and Yamagami Ryuji had no choice but to carry him back to the apartment.

"Brave man, you haven't drunk any extraordinary potions, have you?"

After receiving a nod of response from the boy in the hospital bed, Ryuji Mikami reached out and touched the boy's slicked-back golden hair.

"It seems you may be possessed by some kind of 'extraordinary being'."

Tatsuki Hayato, lying on his hospital bed, looked completely bewildered. As a 'professional', Yamagami Ryuji couldn't think of any other explanation.

"In short, we are only alive today because of you."

"Next-"

Halfway through his sentence, Yamagami Ryuji shut his mouth.

Because footsteps and conversations could be heard.

"Brother, I'm entrusting this matter to you."

"Don't worry, he's my brother after all, I'll take responsibility for finding him."

As they talked, the door to the ward opened, and Mrs. Chenyue and a doctor in a white coat walked in.

The doctor bears a striking resemblance to Tatsuki Hayato's father, and is also middle-aged; however, due to his refined demeanor, he appears younger.

"uncle,"

When Yuto, who was lying in the hospital bed, saw the other person, he struggled to get up and greet him.

"Lie down quickly, Yujin."

The refined-looking doctor raised his hand and gestured to stop him from getting up.

"I heard about what happened to you last night; it was too risky."

“Especially you, Yuto.”

The doctor walked to the bedside, examined the boy's body, and gave him a stern warning.

"Just because you're an extraordinary being, you think you can look down on the 'Netherworld Slaves'?"

“Those ‘underworld slaves’ will not die, but you—you have extensive muscle strains and ligament damage all over your body, and you will need to rest for at least half a month.”

"No. Okay, Uncle, Doctor."

Tatsuki Hayato wanted to say that he wasn't a superhuman, but he decided against it.

According to Long Er, it was he who "displayed his divine power" and repelled the black-robed mystery man and the underworld slave, but he himself had no recollection of it!

Perhaps, maybe, or perhaps I really am extraordinary?

"Yasato, I'm so glad you're alright."

The wound on my hand has been re-bandaged.
As the young Mrs. Chenyue looked at the boy on the hospital bed, tears welled up in her red eyes again.

"cough,"

The mountain god Ryuji coughed, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"Dr. Chenyue, and Mrs. Chenyue,"

"Now that the treatment is over, let's discharge Yuuto."

? ?
"Yoto's condition is a side effect of his supernatural powers. I am the 'host' of this town. He will be sent to my home for treatment."

"Ah, what Ryuji-kun said makes sense, elder brother?"

Mrs. Chenyue, her eyes swollen from crying, turned to look at the middle-aged doctor in the white coat.

"sure,"

"I'm just an ordinary doctor."

Tatsuki Yuuto's uncle, the doctor in the white coat, nodded understandingly.

"Extraordinary matters should be left to professionals."

Without further ado, they borrowed a wheelchair from the hospital, and the three of them pushed Tatsuki Hayato away from the town's hospital.

"Doctor, are we just going to let them leave like this?"

Behind the window of the hospital director's office on the second floor, a figure dressed in a girls' school uniform hid behind the curtains, secretly observing the four people leaving.

"Just now in the hospital, all it took was your command—"

She can take down four people!
"Not urgent,"

The refined middle-aged man sitting behind his desk answered casually, while picking up a photo frame from the desk.

The photo above shows a refined young man and a young woman.

"The more critical the moment, the more cautious we must be."

"Call everyone else over."

Although there was a slight mishap, the doctor had already taken the opportunity to examine the patient during treatment.

That hero, his own nephew, did indeed have residual 'spiritual power' within him.

No, to be precise, it's 'demonic power'.

Taking action rashly is never a wise move: gather manpower and then strike with lightning speed!
“My foolish brother, you shouldn’t have come back.”

Since you're here, you might as well stay.

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.

“Ryuji-kun, your house hasn’t changed at all.”

The four of them passed through the town and arrived at the temple located on the nearby mountain. Although the mountain god Ryuji was a magic-type 'monk', the spiritual power within him was genuine. He lifted Tatsuki Yuuto, wheelchair and all, up the steps and into the temple without any problem.

"Aunt Chenyue, what changes could possibly happen to my family's temple, which has a history of five hundred years?"

To Yuuto's mother's words, Yamagami Ryuji gave a rather helpless reply, and then turned around and closed the temple gate.

"Please come with me, gentlemen,"

Upon entering the side hall, the mountain god Ryuji's expression turned solemn.

"Aunt Chenyue, please take Yongren and leave this town immediately!"

"You'll figure out what to do about Mr. Chenyue once you get out of here. No, if your family doesn't have connections at the level of a regional councilor, just consider it an accident that happened to Mr. Chenyue."

???

The three people in the room were stunned when they heard Yamagami Ryuji, who was dressed in a delinquent-like manner, say these words.

"My dear brothers, my husband is simply missing."

Amid Mrs. Tatsuki's pale rebuttal, Yamagami Ryuji sighed.

“You shouldn’t have come back at this time,”

“This place is no longer the town you left behind—especially after the arrival of the supernatural.”

Seeing the bewildered expressions on the faces of the three, including the local girl Saki, the delinquent-looking young monk had no choice but to reveal the 'darkness' of this town. "More than thirty people have gone missing from our town."

"In a small town of only six thousand people, with thirty people missing, have you noticed anything unusual?"

Shake head, X3
Not to mention Mrs. Tatsuki, who just moved in, and Tatsuki Hayato;
Even Saki, who lives here, had only heard such rumors, and then:

There's no after that.

The so-called disappearances seem to be just gossip. Everyone continues to live their normal lives, since those who have disappeared have nothing to do with them anyway.

Island nations place great importance on neighborly relations; families living close by frequently visit each other, exchanging gifts and so on.
Conversely, if it's a family that has nothing to do with you, then you should ignore them completely.

"Those who went missing were all reclusive people from the town."

"At first, everyone thought it was an evil spirit, then they thought it was the work of a 'ghost slave'; even I thought so, but one night when I went out, I witnessed something."

"murder!"

The thought of a 'slave of the underworld' who clearly wouldn't enter a building...
But when fresh human corpses were carried out of the house, Yamagami Ryuji felt a chill run through his body.

"The so-called rules of conduct for those underworld slaves were deliberately set by someone."

"The purpose is to 'keep' the people of this small town!"

what--

"Isn't the government doing anything about it?"

Tatsuki Yuuto, sitting in his wheelchair, was numb.
Is this still an island nation? Have I somehow been transported to some strange region?
Who's in charge?

Ryuji the Mountain God was even more helpless.
"Do you think the mayor and the police didn't know about what happened?"

But no action was taken. There is no doubt that these government officials were either aware of the situation or involved!
? ?
Mrs. Tatsuki and Hayato Tatsuki, who had just arrived from Kyoto, never imagined that the situation back home had deteriorated to this extent.

But on second thought, in this era of extraordinary arrivals, it is quite normal.

In ancient times, in any place, powerful clans were the rulers.

If these large families want to do something, what can those scattered, unemployed individuals do?
If a powerful family goes further, it becomes a so-called 'daimyo': for a daimyo to kill is a matter of course! There's no need to even try to hide it.

"The person who can control the 'Nether Slaves' and hide in this town must be an extraordinary individual. I have already reported this to the higher authorities, but the government simply doesn't have the manpower or resources to manage remote areas like ours."

The big cities are too busy to manage, Kyoto was just taken over by Abe no Seimei; the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people are keeping the island government in a bind, how can it have time to care about this small town?

This is because Yamagami Ryuji holds the title of 'temple abbot,' which naturally places him in the 'aristocratic class' of this era.

Otherwise, as a high school student, he could at most make a call to the police.

The town's police had long been working for the other side!
"That brave man's father."

"Mrs. Chenyue, please accept my condolences."

In an attempt to persuade the two to leave, Yamagami Ryuji spoke frankly.

"Mr. Chenyue has most likely encountered a mastermind behind the scenes, given the other party's ruthlessness—"

It is now estimated that the corpses have become 'underworld slaves': In order to investigate all this, Yamagami Ryuji went out at night many times and saw several 'missing' people who had become 'underworld slaves' and were wandering around.

"Just forget it?"

Tatsuki Yuuto's unconscious murmur,

"Otherwise, you saw it last night too."

Mountain god Ryuuji spread his hands,
"With so many 'Netherworld Slaves' and an unknown number of extraordinary black-robed figures, how can we possibly fight them?"

Those men in black robes conduct supernatural experiments at night, but during the day they are the town's high-ranking officials: they truly have connections in both the legal and illegal worlds. In this situation, what else can they do but run?
"and many more,"

Just then, Saki, the girl with the side ponytail, suddenly spoke up, pointing to the messages on her phone.

"The town's trams have stopped running."

???

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal: the town's trams don't need to run once a day, so there aren't that many passengers or goods to transport.

But in today's context, that would be—

"Damn it, they don't want you to leave at all!"

Amidst the surging crisis, Yamagami Ryuji couldn't help but curse; while Saki, with a flash of inspiration, raised a finger.

"Hey, we can take the mountain path."

"Don't think about it,"

Mountain God Ryuji waved his hand.

“There are definitely enemy personnel on the mountain road. With just one accident, the vehicle could roll down the mountain road, resulting in a fatal accident.”

"Call the police. No, post this information online and ask for help from the outside world."

As she was talking, Saki suddenly shut her mouth.

Before the arrival of the supernatural, there was a period when 'urban legends' were very popular in the island nation: all sorts of bizarre rumors, and even astrology programs, appeared openly on television.

After the arrival of the extraordinary, it became an overwhelming phenomenon!

Reports, news articles, and posts about encountering extraordinary beings, strange behavior, and abnormal actions have exploded.

However, 99% of the cases later proved to be due to the wickedness of human nature, rather than supernatural intervention. This cycle repeated itself, and now people in the island nation no longer even bother to read these kinds of help requests.

If this won't work and that won't work, doesn't that mean they can only wait to die?

"This is the tragedy of the extraordinary era,"

Yamagami Ryuji gave his final summary.

"Get ready to fight."

"My family has a fairly good food supply, so let's have a go at it with the mastermind: at worst, we'll keep each other company on the road to the underworld."

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.

Mayor's house
"Just as I thought,"

This is an old wooden house: wooden houses used to be the mainstream in island nations.

After all, island nations are known for their frequent earthquakes, and the advantage of wooden houses is that even if they collapse, you're lucky enough not to be crushed to death.

Moreover, it is easy to repair, unlike brick houses which can easily crush or injure people if they collapse in an earthquake.

However, with the widespread adoption of modern reinforced concrete buildings, such buildings are gradually decreasing.

"No wonder he's an old man; he even keeps a diary."

Who keeps a diary if they're a decent person?
In the antique-style bedroom, Jiu Kongyaoai was reading a calligraphy diary and marveling at it.

In a small town of just a few thousand people, there is still so much intrigue and backstabbing.

And just as she expected, the thief who obtained the 'Yamata no Kami's Remains' used the lure of 'resurrecting' his relatives and granting them extraordinary powers to control the town's mayor and police, and then secretly brought the entire town under his control!

These people have conducted dozens of experiments in secret, without the knowledge of ordinary people.

From initially showing no reaction, to resurrecting as a crazed zombie, and then becoming a controlled 'slave of the underworld'.
Although the mayor's diary only reveals the results, it is clear from the few words that the person who studied the 'Yamata no Kami's Remains' was quite capable.

"He was a talented person, what a pity."

The little girl sighed, saying that if it were in the past, she would definitely have recruited such a "talent" into her ranks.

But now, three consecutive betrayals have made her distrust others; moreover, being wanted by the police means she cannot reveal her whereabouts.

Tap tap tap,

Footsteps approached, causing Jiu Kong Yao Ai to turn her head slightly.

brush,

The old-fashioned wooden door was pulled open.

"Ok?"

The person who entered the room was an elderly man in his sixties or seventies.

He was the mayor of this small town: his gaze swept over his room, and the old man felt something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"As people get older, they become suspicious and paranoid."

Shaking his head, the old man walked into the room, sat down, and picked up a photo frame from the cabinet next to him.

"Wait a little longer, wait a little longer;"

We'll be reunited soon!

(End of this chapter)