Supernatural/Anime Crossover: Where Did My Romantic Comedy Go?

"Are those documents still there?"

Kujo Toru's heart stirred.

"Yes, it is." Asano Nana nodded, a little embarrassed. "Because there were too many documents, and the town hall's shredder just happened to be broken, I just put them at my friend's house."

Upon closer examination, her behavior clearly violated the rules.

However, she didn't care too much, because those were old promotional materials that had been made public a long time ago.

It's not a confidential document.

"Can you take me to see it?"

"no problem!"

Nana Asano patted her chest vigorously and readily agreed.

And so, led by her, Kujo Toru arrived at the door of a very strange shop.

The main door was locked, and the display windows on both sides were filled with dolls.

Unlike typical Gothic dolls, these dolls are dressed in kimonos, similar to those worn during the Girls' Festival, and in the light of the setting sun, it looks as if blood is flowing through them.

The sculpted face was pale and stiff, facing the street, with lifeless glass eyes staring straight at the two people.

The sign reads: Read-Yi (two) (one) Sanwu Liu?an Erzhe [Misaki Ningyo].

Asano Nana was clearly also unable to withstand this onslaught. She subconsciously lowered her head, trying her best not to look at these creepy dolls, and stepped forward to knock hard on the door:

"Mizaki! Are you home?"

The sound was loud and carried far down the street.

But there was no response.

Asano Nana shouted loudly several more times, but still no one answered.

Not only that, but no one even peeked out from the houses on either side.

It was as if the whole street was deserted.

Kujo Toru could see clearly that several pairs of eyes were hiding behind the neighbor's window, scrutinizing him with disdain and wariness.

It seems this store is not very popular.

"It seems like no one's in the store. Let's make a call."

Seeing that Asano Nana was about to continue knocking on the door, Kujo Tetsu interrupted her.

"Misaki doesn't take her phone with her when she goes out."

Nana Asano sighed, her face full of helplessness.

He then took a key out of his pocket and skillfully unlocked the door.

Judging from her skillful movements, this was clearly not the first time.

"Luckily, I kept a spare key to her house, otherwise I would have made a wasted trip."

Asano Nana pushed open the door and greeted Kujo Toru:

"I'll go get the things. Please wait here for a moment."

As she spoke, she lowered her voice:

"I kept the key secretly. If Misaki finds out, I'm doomed."

So you're a thief?

Kujo Toru glanced at her sideways, offering no comment, and simply watched her enter the doll shop.

The shop was very dark, with only a little light coming from the entrance.

The temperature was also much lower than outside. As soon as you stepped inside, you could feel a chill creeping up your body from your ankles.

Everywhere you look, there are dolls placed around, some sitting, some lying down, just quietly watching the intruders.

Asano Nana rubbed her arms.

No matter how many times she came, she still felt that Misaki's shop was very creepy, no wonder she rarely saw anyone coming to shop there.

I don't know how Misaki was able to live peacefully in such an environment.

This is a typical family-run shop, with the downstairs used as the storefront and the upstairs used as living quarters.

As she walked through the dolls and onto the creaking stairs, Asano Nana was terrified, afraid of hearing the sound of someone running down the corridor or seeing a woman in white lying on the ceiling.

Fortunately, none of this happened in the end.

She arrived safely on the second floor and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. She opened the door at the end of the corridor, and found the room dark and cluttered with all sorts of odds and ends.

Using the light from her phone's flash, Nana Asano finally found the bulging brown paper document bag, which contained her old documents that she had left there.

Not wanting to stay in this environment for even a moment longer, Asano Nana quickly ran downstairs after getting the items, returned to the door, and handed the file bag to Kujo Toru.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Kujo Toru sincerely thanked her, told Asano Nana that he would return the documents to her the day after tomorrow, then stuffed the things into his backpack and said goodbye.

And they managed to catch the last bus, avoiding being forced to take a taxi back to Fukuoka city.

As the sun sets and the last ray of light is swallowed by the night, the sky turns a deep, dark blue.

"This should be it."

After glancing down at the address sent to his phone, Kujo Toru strode straight into the guesthouse in front of him.

After giving his name, Yokota Tsuyoshi, and his reserved mobile phone number, the receptionist led him to the reserved room.

Unexpectedly, Yokota Tsuyoshi had reserved a suite for him.

Kujo Toru was originally thinking about how to avoid the kendo club members, but now he doesn't have to worry about that at all.

He then placed his backpack on the sofa, turned on the reading light, and took out the documents from the file folder to carefully review them.

As Nana Asano said, the types of documents here are exactly the same as those he saw at the town hall, only they are much older.

Judging from the yellowing of the paper and the lingering dust and musty smell, it's at least twenty or thirty years old.

Most of the content is similar to the new version, with only minor differences.

And he finally found the name Daimura among the pile of papers.

It was a small, color-printed brochure used to promote tourism abroad; the somewhat blurry handwriting and photos were full of the style of the 1990s.

The contents are introductions to some famous attractions and related folk customs in Misaki Town and its surrounding villages, including several pages about Daimyo Village.

【A Mysterious Village Located on the Banks of the Kurokawa River】—this is the title of this article.

Kujo Toru slowed down his reading and began to examine the text word by word.

[It is said that the Kurokawa Shrine in Daimimura has a history of several hundred years, dating back to the Sengoku period, and has been passed down to the present day. Therefore, we can get a glimpse of the Sengoku period from the shrine's structure.]

Below is a photo. Although the colored ink has smudged somewhat due to the passage of time, you can still see the torii gate standing high on the flat ground in the mountains, with the snow-white shimenawa hanging under the eaves of the main hall.

Kujo Toru's gaze slowed, and he squinted to examine it carefully.

For shrines built on mountains like this, there should be a stone placed in front of the main hall to symbolize the suppression of earthquakes.

However, instead of the stone in the photo, there is a stone tablet with inscriptions on it.

Unfortunately, the photo was too blurry to make out what was engraved on it.

However, considering Kurokawa Misaki's experiences, it was most likely used to suppress evil spirits.

Keep reading.

Not only has the shrine remained intact since the Warring States period, but the Kurokawa family, the shrine's chief priests, has also continued to this day. Every year during the Gion Festival, the Kurokawa Shrine holds a grand mountain-burning ceremony to pray for peace and tranquility in the coming year.

The photo shows a crowd of people holding torches, forming a long line on the mountain, illuminating half the sky.

It has the exact same cover as the book "Summer Fireworks".

[In addition, the head of the Kurokawa family has always been a daughter, a tradition followed by generations. This is quite unique among many shrines, and the specific reasons are unknown. It is a taboo topic in the village, so please be aware of this when visiting.]

Next to it, someone had written a short, elegant piece of writing in red pen, emphasizing the phrase "continuous to this day".

Judging from the way the ink has spread, it must have been written in the last few days.

As Ritsuki mentioned, the Kurokawa family actually split up in the beginning, and their lineage was lost long ago.

There is one more line at the very bottom:

The New Year's Eve is almost here, I have to go to Daimyo Village and find her!

Volume 1: Chapter 185 (4K) The Spirit Girl in the Hot Spring

Judging from the timeline, this text was clearly written by Nana Asano's friend, Misaki.

No wonder we didn't see anyone when we went to Misaki Doll today.

I wonder what happened to her in Daimyo Village after she left a few days ago, and whether she found the person named [Rizuki].

And then there's the New Year's Eve...

Generally speaking, the last day of each month is the last day of the month, while the Great Last Day specifically refers to the last day of the year.

It's only July now, so it obviously can't be referring to this New Year's Eve.

That can only refer to the one specifically mentioned in Shintoism.

On moonless nights, the evil spirits are at their peak, and in ancient times, monsters often caused trouble at this time. Therefore, shrines usually held grand festivals to exorcise evil spirits at this time.

This is the concept of the Great New Year in Shintoism.

If we calculate the specific dates, the nights when we can't see the moon should be these two nights.

Kujo Toru closed the travel brochure in his hand and let out a soft sigh of relief.

These old documents contain only what is related to Daimura, much of which he already knew from the Kurokawa Misaki incident.

For example, there's the matter of the evil spirit being suppressed in Daimyo Village.

However, based on the information currently available, we are basically able to reconstruct the tragic mudslide incident from ten years ago.

Yomiyama Junior High School was relocated from Hachikaido City after the fire and merged with a local junior high school in Daimiya Village. The current shrine maiden of Kurokawa Shrine also happens to be studying at Yomiyama Junior High School due to her age.

Then, during the burning mountain ceremony, the Kurokawa family, which now inherits the shrine, is a branch family and failed to inherit the secret method. In addition, Kurokawa Misaki has been bewitched by the evil spirit and has reached a cooperation with it, which ultimately led to the failure of the ceremony.

The evil spirit triggered a mudslide, annihilating the entire Daimyo Village, but it failed to break the seal, which has continued to this day, waiting for Kurokawa Misaki to complete the Seven Luminaries Yomi Festival so that he can appear in the world.

However, there are still a few problems.

Kujo Toru tapped his right index finger on the table, organizing his thoughts.

According to Munakata Kiyono, a high school girl survived the mudslide tragedy, and the protagonist of Kurokawa Misaki's novel "Summer Fireworks" is also the only survivor.

Could this person be the owner of the Misaki Doll shop?

So, is the person she wrote down as "Ritsuki" in the manual the shrine maiden of Kurokawa Shrine?

What is the stone tablet that replaced the scepter in the shrine?

If Kurokawa Shrine is a branch family, what about the main family?

Furthermore, if the lineage has been broken, then what methods have been used to maintain the seal all these years? And why was the suppressed evil spirit unable to break the seal and escape ten years ago?

Pulling over the other documents, Kujo Toru continued to carefully search for clues.

He had a premonition that these questions were getting close to the truth about the entire Daiyu Village.

However, these matters have already touched upon the secrets of the Kurokawa family.

Not to mention that it's recorded in such propaganda materials, even the residents of Misaki Town probably don't know much about it.

Kujo Toru spent more than two hours turning the entire file folder upside down, but still couldn't find anything more.

I glanced at the time; it was already past 1 a.m.

There was a message on his phone from Yokota Tsuyoshi reminding him to go to sleep.

Tomorrow is the opening ceremony of the Yulong Banner tournament and the preliminary round for the top 16. We need to maintain a good condition to prepare for at least four consecutive matches.

After getting up from the sofa, Kujo Toru took a quick shower in the bathroom, then walked out of the room wearing a yukata, setting up a protective barrier along the way.

He planned to experience the hotel's most famous hot spring.