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

Kujo Toru nodded, indicating that he understood.

After having lunch at a well-known local eel restaurant, the two returned to the Fukuoka Budokan.

The afternoon matches were much easier than the morning ones.

Although their opponents were able to reach the quarterfinals and were by no means weak, they were still slightly inferior to Kamiya High School, which had the potential to win the championship.

He was once again swept aside by Toru Kujo, ending his match for the day.

Next up is the semi-finals tomorrow afternoon, and the Yulongqi final, which will start at 8 pm tonight.

The next opponent for Soubu High School has been confirmed: the team nicknamed "Saitama's Thunder"—Tokyo Kokushikan High School.

However, for Kujo Toru, the matter of the Jade Dragon Banner had to be put aside for the time being.

Because he and Yoshino Asatake had already boarded the bus to Misaki-cho.

Now it's time to deal with Daimura.

Volume 1: Chapter 192 (6K) Yoshino Asagi: So I'm that amazing?

Inside the town hall of Misaki-cho, Asano Nana felt very heavy-hearted.

Because her only friend of the same age in the town had mysteriously disappeared.

"Sigh, Misaki hasn't been seen for two days. Could something have happened to him?"

He rested his chin on his hands, leaning against a scratched wooden table.

The old table fan, which had been used for who knows how many years, creaked and whirred as it turned, but the slight breeze couldn't dispel the anxiety in Asano Nana's heart.

Because she took the boy from Chiba to the Misaki family to retrieve an old document that was to be destroyed the day before yesterday, she made a special trip to the Misaki Doll yesterday afternoon to apologize to her friend.

After all, she did enter the other party's house without informing them, and no matter what, she was wrong in that respect.

To her surprise, the door to Misaki Doll was also locked yesterday, and she still couldn't get through to her phone.

After asking around among the neighbors, she finally learned that her friend hadn't returned for the past few days.

Nana Asano called the police last night.

The Fukuoka Prefectural Police accepted the case, but due to the recent Dragon Flag event, the number of tourists has increased significantly, and they need to send out personnel to maintain order, so they don't have much free time to handle it promptly.

We can only begin the search after the Jade Dragon Flag ceremony ends tomorrow.

Nana Asano was also helpless about this, since Misaki-cho was a small town with a population of only a thousand, and for cost reasons, there was no police station in the town.

"Damn bureaucracy! Some departments have a bunch of idle people on their paychecks, but the police station is so stingy."

He cursed angrily, completely disregarding the fact that she was also one of the idle people he was referring to as freeloaders.

But after she finished cursing, she sighed.

Lately, apart from that boy, no strangers have come to the town. How could Misaki have disappeared?

Could it be that he has disappeared without a trace?

Asano Nana vaguely remembered that when she first came to Misaki Town two years ago, the mayor told her not to go to Kurokawa.

It is said that there are gods living in the mountains near Kurokawa, and if you approach rashly, you may encounter a god who disappears.

However, she didn't actually take it seriously at the time.

After all, legends of disappearing into the shadows exist everywhere.

To put it bluntly, it all started with the fear that children would wander off alone, so people used these kinds of words to scare them.

The mayor originally said that he felt that as an outsider, he was not familiar with the local mountain roads and was likely to get lost if he went into the mountains alone.

But now, Asano Nana's heart began to pound.

Upon closer reflection, it seems that even the townspeople are reluctant to talk about Kurokawa, which doesn't necessarily mean it was just because a landslide had occurred there.

What are you thinking about?!

A very familiar voice suddenly rang out from behind, startling Asano Nana, who was lost in thought.

He immediately straightened his back, perked up, and subconsciously picked up the documents in front of him to start organizing them, pretending to be working diligently.

"I'm thinking about the year-end financial report, Mayor!"

Asano Nana's face was serious, as if she had poured her heart and soul into it.

But everyone here is just someone who goes through the motions at the town hall, so who doesn't know what kind of person everyone is usually like?

The mayor simply waved his hand, brushing aside the matter of her slacking off, and started talking about something else:

"Go to the bus stop at the village entrance later and pick up a few people."

"Yes!"

Nana Asano subconsciously agreed first, then realized something was amiss:

"Are there people from Fukuoka Prefecture coming down to inspect today?"

“No.” The mayor shook his head: “It’s a group of young people who do live streaming. They say they want to record the lives of elderly people in the countryside so that modern society can pay attention to these marginalized groups.”

“It just so happens that our Misaki Town is remote and doesn’t have many young people, which fits their requirements perfectly, so they took the initiative to call me. Judging by the time, I should be arriving soon.”

Nana Asano nodded: "I see."

She strongly agrees that there are no young people in Misaki-cho.

Because among the people under thirty in the town, besides her who was assigned here to just coast along, only Misaki remained.

Of the remaining people, the youngest are all over fifty years old.

There are already few young people, and in order to make a living, most of them flock to cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagoya, leaving only elderly people who are reluctant to leave their hometowns to stay in the countryside.

Once these people grow old, Misaki Town will either be merged into the surrounding towns or simply abandoned.

This is also a common phenomenon in today's low birth rate, and there are towns like this every year across the country.

"But I never expected that you, Mayor, would agree to something like this..."

Nana Asano sighed.

Her impression of the mayor had always been that he was a local old-fashioned man who was just waiting to retire without doing anything significant. She never expected him to have such a progressive side, actually agreeing to the request from the social media live streaming team.

The mayor simply shook his head and said with some emotion:

"What kind of person do you take me for? If I had the means, I would also very much like to revitalize Misaki Town."

His words were filled with melancholy and a heaviness that Asano Nana could not comprehend.

“Mayor…”

Nana Asano was a little touched.

"So what are you still doing here? Hurry up and go pick them up!"

Seeing the mayor's imperious manner, Asano Nana's small feeling of being touched vanished instantly, replaced by gritted teeth.

"Okay, I'll go right away."

The summer sun shines down on the mountain town.

The scene of rising steam was somewhat distorted.

The cicadas chirped incessantly, and the irrigation ditches on both sides of the road flowed slowly.

Several villagers were working under the scorching sun in the fields.

For those who grew up in the city, this idyllic pastoral scene is perhaps a rare sight, allowing them to experience a sense of leisure.

However, Nana Asano, who has been working in Misaki-cho for two years, prefers the hustle and bustle of the city.

The bus stop is located at the entrance of the village, which is also the only road into the village.

Before long, she saw the lonely bus stop sign standing by the roadside and the bus shelter that was covered with mottled marks.

She took out some tissues from her purse, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and then stood at the bus stop to wait.

A moment later, a white van slowly drove towards them from the other end of the road.

The car window rolled down, and a young man leaned out of the driver's seat, shouting at her:

"Hello, I'm Mizutani. Are you the staff member the mayor mentioned who's here to pick us up?"

“That’s right!” Hearing that the name given by the other party matched the one the town mayor had mentioned, Asano Nana breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

"You can drive your car to the town hall entrance and park there. I'll give you directions."

"Thank you for your help."

The man's face lit up with joy, and then the van's door was opened.

Asano Nana, with a strong sense of vigilance, first stood in the station and glanced into the train.

There were two boys and a girl sitting inside, and the trunk was full of equipment for live streaming.

"There's a lot of equipment, so please bear with us."

The boy wearing glasses scratched his head and spoke somewhat shyly.

"fine."

After confirming that she hadn't made a mistake, Asano Nana got into the car and sat next to the only girl, giving directions to the boy named Mizutani who was driving.

The car's air conditioning dispelled the summer heat, allowing Asano Nana to finally focus on observing other things.

She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt that Mizutani looked familiar, though she couldn't quite place where she had seen him before.

Logically speaking, she hadn't had much contact with outsiders in Misaki-cho, so she shouldn't have had this feeling.

And these people were chatting amongst themselves.

Mizutani drove along the route Asano Nana pointed out, speaking without turning his head:

"As this is our brand new project, I want to reiterate that this live stream is more of a charity event and there's not much money to be made. With your previous experience, you can definitely join other exploration teams."

"You've been asking that for over half a month, aren't you tired of it?" The girl rolled her eyes, and the others quickly chimed in:

"Exactly, if we really wanted to leave, we wouldn't have been preparing with you until now."

"Moreover, that night at Shuangqiu Mountain..."

"Cough cough!"

The boy with glasses coughed, interrupting his companion, and glanced at Nana Asano without leaving a trace.

The other three understood what he meant and immediately ended the conversation.

The bizarre events that occurred that night in Hachisai City, and the terrifying experience of almost being disemboweled as a sacrifice, are still vivid in their minds.

If it weren't for that great mage who saved them in time, they would probably be on the annual list of missing persons by now.

However, this kind of thing is too absurd to be discussed in front of outsiders.

However, their words also reminded Asano Nana, who was deep in thought, of where that sense of familiarity came from.

"I remember now!"

The sudden opening of the door made Mizutani, who was driving, flinch and almost veer off course, crashing into a house.

All four of them turned their gazes toward her.

"Aren't you the exploration team that was all the rage a while ago? I really enjoyed watching your live streams back then!"

Asano Nana, completely oblivious to the strange attitudes of the others, excitedly continued her story:

"Your live stream in the Eighth Street City that night was exposed as fake and then it was shut down. I felt sorry for a long time."

"By the way, why did you decide to switch to this kind of charity-themed live streaming?"

The atmosphere inside the car suddenly became somewhat stiff.

"Haha..." Mizutani chuckled dryly, trying to brush it off: "Well, doing live-streaming explorations is actually quite dangerous if you do it for too long. I can't keep doing it for long, so I might as well just do what I want to do."

Nana Asano didn't suspect anything and nodded in agreement: "Indeed, after all, it's easy to encounter criminals in those abandoned places, so it's indeed dangerous."

In fact, what we encounter is far more dangerous than criminals.

Mizutani thought to himself that he was complaining, but he didn't say it out loud.

That would be the best outcome if the other party thought that way.