Crossover anime, a daily life that begins with hunting supernatural beings.

Kayako's attack achieved nothing except burning Sakurai to death with the Soul Flame once again.

That is, the so-called...

Useless.

Then, Sakurai went straight to the front of the attic.

"If this is all the attack you've got, I'll be very disappointed."

"You know I came here with the intention of causing a huge scene, so don't let me leave disappointed."

Sakurai's voice echoed on the second floor before finally disappearing.

The moment the words fell, the familiar bubble sound rang out again, and a semi-transparent paper door appeared out of thin air in Sakurai's eyes.

The paper door, full of Japanese style, looks just like an ordinary house, exactly the same as the one Sakurai saw when he came.

"A hallucination?"

Before Sakurai could make a judgment and take action, the paper door slowly opened, and behind it, a man and a woman whose appearances were not clearly visible seemed to be arguing about something.

Then, the man, his face contorted with rage, continued to beat the woman in pain. He then pulled a kitchen knife from the table and stabbed it into her body.

Unable to believe it, she collapsed to the ground, blood staining the ground red from her wounds. The woman, her eyes wide open, made a gurgling sound before falling into the pool of blood, filled with resentment.

The man did not stop. Driven by anger and rage, he continued to cut the woman's body with the knife. The woman's corpse, still alive, convulsed and trembled, her wide eyes filled with incomprehensible pain.

The woman's face, stained with blood, was contorted in a grotesque expression.

In the end, the man cut off the woman's head and held onto her hair tightly.

Sakurai looked up and met a pair of dark pupils—the eyes of a woman, filled with resentment and bitterness.

Why did she have to endure all this? Harboring such resentment, she was brutally tortured to death.

The man's name is Takeo Saeki, and the woman's name is Kayako. This is...

Was it the day Kayako was killed by Takeo Saeki?

Sakurai made this judgment.

49. Ju-on: Roots

Sakurai was aware of what was happening before him.

The information the bartender gave him revealed the cause of all this.

The tale of Ju-on was a tragedy from the very beginning.

Kayako, who has a withdrawn personality, fell in love with a man during her university years. Due to her personality, she did not have the courage to express her feelings to him, but instead wrote her thoughts in her diary. In the end, the man was unaware of this.

After that, Kayako suffered a series of misfortunes.

The black cat that had grown up with them since they were kittens died, and their parents also died in a car accident while traveling.

After that, through a matchmaker, Kayako married a man who was the same man who killed her, Takeo Saeki.

That was arguably the happiest time of Kayako's life.

It was also her refuge when she was all alone.

However, from the very beginning, this fleeting happiness was like a soap bubble that burst at the slightest touch.

Takeo Saeki was born with mental health issues and a natural tendency toward violence.

Shortly after her marriage, Kayako gave birth to a child, who was none other than Saeki Toshio, whom Sakurai Itto killed.

Several years passed in the blink of an eye, and Kayako's story reached a turning point in her destiny.

Kayako unexpectedly learns that Saeki Toshio's elementary school teacher is none other than Kobayashi Shunsuke, whom she has a crush on. Meanwhile, Saeki Takeo learns during a medical check-up that he has congenitally low sperm count, making it difficult for him to conceive.

Confused and frustrated, he unexpectedly discovered Kayako's diary in the cabinet, and after that...

The violent tendencies hidden deep within him finally erupted. Driven by rage, he lost his mind and cruelly tortured Kayako before killing and dismembering her.

Finally, they hid in the attic on the second floor.

All the tragic experiences she had from childhood to adulthood, the resentment and incomprehension of being tortured to death by her husband due to a misunderstanding.

The answer was finally found after his death.

She understood the whole story.

The resentment that had accumulated over the years reached its peak, transforming into an unquenchable curse that lingered throughout the house.

After killing everyone, Kayako, now a ghost story, began indiscriminately killing everyone who entered the house.

It wasn't until unscrupulous businesses used some methods to hide it that the matter came to an end.

If the bartender hadn't discovered it in time, given the terrifying spread of Ju-on's power and Kayako's immortal status as a ghost story, it would have been a disaster.

Tokyo may have already fallen.

Anyway...

The scene unfolding before Sakurai now is the entire process of Kayako transforming into "Ju-on".

So what follows is...

Enraged, Takeo Saeki left home with a kitchen knife and went to the house of Kayako's unrequited elementary school teacher, where he murdered his wife, Manami.

That is to say...

They want to kill me, the "bystander."

Sakurai didn't believe that Kayako was showing him this scene just to gain sympathy.

Just as Sakurai had expected, after chopping up Kayako's corpse, Saeki Takeo walked towards Sakurai with a ferocious expression, carrying a knife.

He raised the cleaver and slashed at Sakurai.

"Kayako, as the cursed one, cannot forgive. She killed too many innocent people, and only death can bring an end to everything."

"That is also the purpose of my trip."

"As the one who started all of this, you are even less forgivable."

“Takeo Saeki, your time has come.”

As he said this, Sakurai stomped his foot and jumped back, dodging the cleaver that Saeki Takeo was about to bring down.

Covered in blood, Takeo Saeki couldn't understand what Sakurai meant. After being killed by Kayako, he had lost his sense of self and, like everyone else who had died so far, had become Kayako's puppet.

Now, all that remains of him is the instinct to kill.

The instinct to regard every human being within sight as Kayako and to kill and chop them all up.

"You think you can hurt me?"

"Do you even deserve it?"

The horizontal Arakami Fang blocked Saeki Takeo's cleaver, and with a swift movement, severed the arm holding the cleaver.

With a ferocious expression, Saeki Takeo opened his mouth wide, about to bite down on Yiji's neck.

With one kick, he sent Takeo Saeki flying, and with the other, his body leaped into the air.

It fell heavily, and the crimson Aragami Fang tore through Saeki Takeo's trachea.

"A piece of trash is a piece of trash; it doesn't even have the most basic thinking ability."

"Disappear, you piece of trash who only prey on those weaker than yourself."

"You have no right to exist in this world."

It swiftly severed his head and limbs, and finally, pierced his heart.

Standing up, Sakurai casually wiped the blood off his face, extended his thumb, rotated it 180 degrees, and gave a matter-of-fact snort.

Then...

Sakurai, whose face suddenly turned deathly pale, vomited a large amount of black hair and blood mixed with his internal organs.

His body went limp and he knelt on the ground.

The chuckles rang in his ears again, this time coming from inside his stomach.

Her belly swelled to a size more exaggerated than that of a woman who is ten months pregnant, as if Sakurai had drunk the water of the Land of Women, and a new life was growing in her belly.

The child's name...

It's called Kayako.

Unfortunately, I don't want children.

With a cold face, Sakurai flipped the Aragami Fang over and plunged it into his own stomach, rotating it 180 degrees before thoroughly stirring it.

A large amount of black blood and fragments of internal organs gurgled out in one breath.

The amount of bleeding can even exceed the weight of an adult.

It's not over yet; it's not completely drained.

My internal organs have also been contaminated by Kayako.

Knowing this, Sakurai let out a long sigh. Before his body could fully heal, Sakurai reached into his stomach and pulled out his internal organs along with Kayako's mangled head, throwing them to the ground.

Looking at the offal that had been chopped into tiny pieces like beef offal, Sakurai's face darkened.

This kind of attack that comes from inside the body is fucking disgusting.

Enraged, Sakurai stomped on Kayako, who was not yet fully formed, and invisible flames burned her body, along with the black blood and internal organs, to ashes.

The bubbly laughter in her ears turned into uncontrollable, miserable wails, and now it was Sakurai's turn to laugh.

Thank you, Aragami, your ability is really useful.

Sakurai felt a little better after kicking away the dark ashes on the ground.

Wiping the mixture of internal organs from the corner of his mouth, Sakurai, with a smirk, swung out the Arakami Fang. The swirling red light severed the semi-transparent paper door and returned to Sakurai's hand.

"This is awful! You forced me to eat you, how are you going to make it up to me?!"

"Gaya coconut."