Crossover anime/manga, can you be my immortal companion for life?

Kerry and his companion's room was located at the corner of the stairs. With the soundproofing of this Japanese-style house, Kerry could easily hear whether anyone was coming downstairs simply by sitting at the door.

"Could it be that there are surveillance cameras in the room, and they noticed your behavior?"

"Who knows, but I think they probably stayed up all night and are catching up on sleep."

"I see. So what are your plans next?" Kazuma climbed over and sat down at the table.

"Wow! Curry, the free meals at this restaurant are quite a good deal, even better than lunch."

Kerry, who was planning to eat some, frowned upon hearing Kazuma's words and put down his chopsticks.

He was taken aback by Kerry's actions.

"You suspect they might have drugged us? But we weren't there at noon... Yes, there were other people there at noon."

Kazuma then remembered that there were many unusual things about this village, so he swallowed hard and put his food aside.

All I can say is that He Zhen is very clever and saved Kerry a lot of explanations.

Time passed slowly, and He Zhen got so bored that he started counting on his fingers.

It got completely dark, and the proprietress delivered food to the Goto family next door.

Then the family of four in the next room seemed to have gone to sleep, and no one came out to use the toilet.

Just as Kerry was about to try a different approach and search upstairs and downstairs, Kerry and Kazuma Sato both widened their eyes in surprise.

"fragrance...?"

Kazuma felt it; it was that familiar feeling, just like the scent he had when he was with the human-faced dog.

Kerry nodded; he could smell it too, though it was very faint.

Kerry thought for a moment, then turned off the lights in the house, unplugged his fully charged phone, and turned the brightness down to the lowest setting so that the two of them could see in the dark.

Then, I gently turned the doorknob to open the door a crack. Since the lights were off, there was no obvious light in the corridor, and for some reason, the corridor lights were already off at seven o'clock in the evening.

It's gotten stronger! The aroma has intensified, and the guiding scent is telling them that the food is downstairs.

"Did some ghost or monster break in?" Kazuma whispered to Kerry.

"I'm not sure, let's go check it out first."

So Kerry simply stood up and spoke loudly.

"Ugh! I'm so sleepy, let's go to the bathroom and then sleep!"

Kazuma also raised his voice in response. "Okay! Seriously, I'm exhausted today!"

The two pretended to pass by the stairwell and headed towards the restroom at the end of the corridor, but their eyes were always fixed on the first floor.

The lobby on the first floor was brightly lit, and a man was standing in front of the counter greeting the proprietress.

"Mieko, you haven't been back for days. Bring me a bottle of shochu!"

The moment they saw the man, they both realized one thing: that man was the source of the fragrance.

"Junji, you've really worked hard. Here, I've boiled the water for you. You can take a bath in the wooden tub later."

Kerry and Zhen walked over.

The two quickly returned to their room.

After closing the door, Kazuma deliberately turned the handle to make a locking sound, then looked at Kerry.

"What's going on? That's a living person, right? We..."

Kazuma was a little overwhelmed. Although he didn't want them to eat people, did they think they would kill someone when they were hungry because of the aroma?

Kerry shook his head.

"Don't worry, why did so many people in Tokyo not react, but people here do? There must be something special about them."

Then Kerry looked out the window of the room.

Kazuma was taken aback, then became somewhat nervous.

"Wait, what are you going to do?"

“I have a bad feeling about this. We’d better not go out the door,” Kerry said, quietly pushing open the window.

"Hey, even if the ceiling isn't high here, it's still at least three meters from the windowsill!" Kazuma looked at Kerry in disbelief.

“It’s okay, I can go alone. You just pretend there’s someone else in the room.” Kerry didn’t ask He Zhen to come with him. Having mentally prepared himself, he put on the Batman mask and jumped off the windowsill.

"Bang!" Even after the roll to dissipate the force, a muffled sound still rang out.

Kerry felt that his feet and wrists were sprained and his hands were cut, but he didn't care. Instead, he endured the pain and darted into the shadows.

They said they were looking for those people, but Kerry didn't have any direction and just walked towards the village.

But after walking only a few steps, Kerry realized something was wrong.

Fuck!

It smells so good! It smells amazing!

Kerry, having circled around the back of the inn to a dark corner, felt a very strange sensation.

It felt like I'd wandered into a buffet restaurant where everything was the kind of food I wanted to eat.

Moreover, this is a bit too lively.

In the village at night, the sounds of people and dogs filled the air, but strangely, looking towards the noisy area, there was not a single light, only the houses still had their lights on.

Kerry closed his eyes, carefully sensing the location-like feeling, as if there were at least 50 individuals that could be "eaten" moving around in the village.

Some were entering houses, while others were gathering together. If all of these things were spirits, then it would truly be a procession of a hundred ghosts at night.

Kerry wanted to get closer to take a look, but he was afraid of being discovered, so he started to walk around the places where the scents were.

After wandering around for a while, Kerry ended up in front of a temple.

There seemed to be several destinations here before, but now the smells have all left and are heading towards the center of the village.

Kerry looked around and tiptoed into the temple.

However, just as Kerry was about to peer through the temple door, he heard voices.

There was no smell, so it must be an ordinary person. Kerry looked around and was about to go outside, but then a fragrance came from outside, seemingly approaching from afar.

Helpless, Kerry had no choice but to enter the main hall, walk around it one last time to look at the central Shakyamuni statue. There was a gap between the back of the statue and the wall, so Kerry hid behind the statue. The area was relatively clean, as if someone cleaned it regularly.

only...

Kerry stared blankly behind the statue, where a pink-haired figure sat on the ground looking at him with a face full of fear.

Kerry: ?

What are you doing? Dio flipping the manhole cover—is this place full?

When the other person saw Kerry, she seemed about to scream, but Kerry stepped forward and covered her mouth.

Kerry didn't care about anything else and immediately shrank into the shadows behind the Buddha statue.

Just before and after Kri hid inside, two men dressed as monks carrying lanterns entered the main hall and closed the doors.

Kerry heard some rustling sounds, as if the other person had sat down on a prayer mat in front of the Buddha, only a Buddha statue away from him.

At this moment, the two spoke up.

"Master Jingxin, really, why don't you even listen to the chairman's opinion?"

“You still call him master! Have you forgotten that your father was also involved in arresting him back then?”

The sound of their conversation drifted over.

Chapter Nineteen: Village Secrets

At night, candles were lit in the main hall of the temple, and the half-open, half-closed eyes of the Buddha statue seemed to be looking down at the two people in the hall.

Meanwhile, two monks who didn't want outsiders to hear their conversation were speaking freely.

“Following Jingxin, there are so many rules, it’s so annoying.” One of them picked up a bottle of soda, took a sip, and looked troubled.

"There was nothing I could do; he was still useful. Back then, I made countless trips to the richest man's house to try and get in touch with his family," another, younger-sounding voice chimed in.

"In the end, wasn't he just after that woman? No, it would be more accurate to say that girl. Sometimes I really wonder just how twisted that hypocritical guy really is."

"That's right. By the way, how's that kid from the Uesugi family doing? I haven't been to the mountains these past few days. Wasn't he quite unruly before?"

Seemingly unwilling to discuss this issue, one of them changed the subject.

"Oh, him? Wasn't he called in to take over from old Yasuda? I guess he'll behave himself in a while. Hehe, the mountains really aren't a place for humans to live."

“Indeed, that place in the mountains is really tough. They turn all those things into animal feed. They are our fellow human beings. I hope Buddha can forgive us…” The young man, who initially seemed to have some reverence for Master Jingxin, spoke with a slightly awkward tone.

"What do you mean by 'same kind, different kind'!" The other person seemed a little impatient, shouting like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, interrupting the young man.

"We've already done things like this, what are you still afraid of? Hasn't your old man eaten enough people? You make it sound so nice, calling them animal feed! Aren't they all people too?"

What are we doing? If you don't want to become like those animal feed, you'd better harden your heart sooner rather than later.

"What will we do when we get old without them?"

Listening to the older man speak, the young man seemed to catch his breath and become more determined.

"Yes, senior brother, you're right. We'll all have to visit the Lotus Pond someday. It's just that the people sent over these past ten days or so have all been locals, so I'm a little..."

"Hmph, fellow countrymen, aren't they all debt slaves or homeless people? You'd better give up that idea. We are different from them."

Once we have enough money, we'll go to Tokyo and live it up for decades. We can have any woman we want, and all the good things we desire.

I'll go to that lotus pond when I'm almost old and dead. Lotus pond, lotus pond, what a nice-sounding name.

"Isn't it just blindfolding someone and letting that woman bite you to turn you into a ghoul? That's what that old ghost Jingxin calls it in his books, but here it's become some kind of body-shaping thing. If you ask me, those people want to be ghosts and have fame too, getting all the benefits and then not letting anyone say anything about them."

"Be careful what you say, senior brother. This way of addressing someone was decided by Yamada, the richest man in the country." The young man heard this and repeatedly told him to stop.

However, the person referred to as the senior brother did not seem as calm as he appeared. It seemed that he usually kept his anger bottled up inside, which was why he was so agitated.

Hearing those around him trying to dissuade him only fueled his anger.

"What are you afraid of? Are you going to tell on us, or are you afraid that others will overhear?"

"No...I can't!"