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

Although it's not early, it's July now.

Given Fukuoka's latitude, it shouldn't have gotten so dark so quickly.

Moreover, when she was chatting with Kujo Toru, there was still dusk on the horizon.

"It is the ordinary world."

Kujo Toru's calm voice rang in her ears, and Asagi Yoshino then noticed that her phone showed she was outside the circle.

The signal bar was completely empty.

Subconsciously gripping the hilt of Congyu Maru's sword, a glint of light shone in the girl's already azure eyes.

A look of astonishment crossed his face.

"How could this be..."

"There's no filth or resentment, right?"

Kujo Toru had been watching her the whole time. Noticing the expression on her face, he spoke directly and revealed her inner thoughts.

Chao Wufang nodded silently.

In fact, Kujo Toru had already discovered this situation when he first came to Misaki-cho to investigate the day before yesterday.

The mortal world is the other side of the same coin as the present world, and logically, the air should be filled with filth and resentment.

Moreover, a malevolent spirit is sealed here, and based on events from ten years ago, it should be breaking the seal soon.

But at the time, he didn't notice a single thing.

There was no foul air emanating from the evil spirit itself, nor even from the negative emotions naturally released by the town's residents.

It was so clean that he wondered if he had returned to a purification shrine.

It's as if all the stories of Daiyu Village and evil spirits are fabricated, and this place is a kind-hearted mountain paradise.

But is it possible?

So he was once again certain that his initial guess was correct.

The landslide and mudslide that occurred ten years ago was not simply the work of evil spirits.

There must be something hidden beneath Daimyo Village.

Unfortunately, these things were completely buried along with the passing of the last shrine maiden of Kurokawa Shrine.

Kurokawa Misaki and Kyogoku Natsuhiko were just pitiful people who were deceived by Yatogami, and they couldn't possibly know the inside story.

The residents and mayor of Misaki Town may know some of the secrets of Kurokawa Shrine, but they could never access the deepest secrets.

Their strange attitude towards Daimura and Kurokawa Shrine seemed more like a fear of some kind of taboo.

Therefore, if we have to say who is most likely to know what's inside, it can only be Yoshino Asatake, the successor of the Asatake family.

Unfortunately, according to her, the ancestor who fled to Suizhi Town was not the priestess of that generation, and she did not know many things.

All she knew was the curse that the Asabu family had borne for generations and the events of a hundred years ago.

If it weren't for Kujo Tetsu's chance discovery of this place, Daimura would probably have really disappeared.

Until the day when what's hidden is completely exposed.

Asahi Yoshino followed closely behind Kujo Toru, cautiously observing the surrounding environment.

This was her first time entering such a vast mortal realm.

Even now, she hasn't even seen what Daimura looks like.

As the current shrine maiden of Kenji Shrine, what she did before was to perform Kagura dances during the shrine's grand festivals to cleanse the town of its accumulated filth.

At most, they would go to exorcise spirits when residents in the town were being harassed by them, and occasionally deal with a few newly born little monsters.

But the current situation is far beyond her comprehension.

Roughly estimated, the entire mountain forest is probably already in a state of perpetual motion.

If such a large scale is influenced by the sealed Yato-gami, just how powerful is this evil god who left his name in ancient books?

How exactly did the ancestors of the Chaowu family seal it away?

Is this Lord Congyu?

But she has served Lord Congyu for so many years and has never felt that Lord Congyu could do this much.

Yoshino Asatake suddenly felt a little confused.

She began to understand what Kujo Toru felt; the closer she got to the matter, the more mysteries she discovered.

His mind was wandering, and he didn't notice that Kujo Toru had stopped in front of him and crashed straight into him.

The heavy armor on his chest pressed against the opponent's back, and was squeezed and deformed.

Asagi Yoshino quickly took two steps back, just about to apologize, when she heard the booming sound of water and Kujo Toru's calm voice:

"Dai-O-Mura, we've arrived."

The air became humid.

The green mountains stood against the dark night sky, their outlines barely visible.

In the darkness, a large lake suddenly came into view.

The mirror-like lake reflects the starry sky, as if the Milky Way had fallen into it.

"This is the landslide-dammed lake."

Kujo Toru's voice rang out at just the right moment.

Upon hearing this, Yoshino Asagi instinctively looked ahead along the lake. With the help of the starlight, she could see a river rushing in from the foot of the mountain.

Below the landslide dam, rocks carried by a landslide ten years ago blocked the river channel, forming a natural dam several meters high.

The overflowing water crashed down the rocks, forming a waterfall with a considerable drop, splashing into large sprays of water mist.

If she hadn't known that a malevolent spirit was sealed here, she would have thought the scenery was quite beautiful.

but……

"Where is Daimura?"

The girl looked around until her eyes ached, but she couldn't find any trace of the building's existence.

"That's at the bottom of the lake, of course."

Kujo Toru replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Are we going to dive down?"

Asahi Yoshino spoke with some difficulty, saying that just looking at the drop of the waterfall, the depth of the barrier lake in front of them was probably more than ten meters.

It was so dark that we couldn't see anything in the water at all; it was too dangerous.

"Why would we go diving? We're not looking for Daimura."

Kujo Toru gave her a strange look and said something that seemed quite contradictory.

At first, Yoshino Asagi didn't understand what he meant, but after thinking about it carefully, she suddenly realized.

Oh right! We're here to see Kurokawa Shrine!

Although Kurokawa Shrine is also located in Daimiya, the ancestors of the Asabu family originally built the shrine directly on the seal in order to suppress Yato-gami.

In other words, it should be on a mountain, not in a village.

Thinking of this, Asahi Yoshino's mind cleared up, and she squinted her eyes to look at the mountains on the opposite shore of the lake.

Although she couldn't find the shrine due to the darkness and the obstruction of the trees, she still managed to see the torii gate half-submerged in the lake.

Since the torii gate is here, the shrine must be nearby.

But now, a new problem has arisen:

"So how do we get across? Swim across?"

Asatake Yoshino realized that things seemed to have come full circle, and she still had to go into the water.

"Don't rush, someone's coming."

Kujo Toru turned his head to look upstream of the Kurokawa River, threw out a sentence, then drew the Sacred Sword from his waist and narrowed his eyes.

The snow-white blade gleamed coldly in the darkness.

Are there other people in the mortal realm?

Full of doubts, Yoshino Asagi followed Toru Kujo's gaze upstream.

A faint, orange-yellow light swayed and slowly approached the two of them.

Thick white fog rose from the lake, obscuring the view and making it almost impossible to see anything. Only the sounds of flowing water and waterfalls could be heard.

A faint nursery rhyme drifted from the thick fog:

"It's open! It's open!"

"Where is this path?"

"This is a minor path for the gods."

"Pass through quietly to the other side..."

The clear, melodious singing echoed through the empty mountains, creating a rather eerie atmosphere.

What made Yoshino Asatake even more uneasy was the nursery rhyme itself.

"It's the 'Travel Song'."

"Ah."

Kujo Toru nodded.

Although this nursery rhyme has been adapted in modern times to teach children to obey traffic rules, its original version was far from that.

In folk customs, there is a saying called "sending seven children," in which a seven-year-old child is selected from the village to be sacrificed to the local deity in order to pray for protection.

The "Song of Passage" was originally sung for them, as a sacrifice for these children who died at the age of seven.

The orange light drew closer and closer until it reached her feet. Only then did Asahi Yoshino realize that it was actually a paper river lantern.

Releasing river lanterns is also a folk custom for commemorating the deceased. Even today, some places in Shikoku still retain the custom of releasing river lanterns on the Obon festival.

However, this is just the beginning.

Following that, more river lanterns floated downstream from the upper reaches of the Kurokawa River, entering the mirror-like barrier lake, echoing the stars in the night sky.

The warm candlelight barely illuminated the area around the lake, and also the figures of the two people.

The nursery rhyme continued through the thick fog, and the sound of rushing water grew clearer and clearer.

That was the sound of oars cutting through the water.

A hazy shadow gradually approached, and finally appeared completely in Asagi Yoshino's sight.

She was a mature woman dressed in a brightly colored kimono, her collarbone exposed, and her head adorned with heavy hair ornaments; she looked like an ancient courtesan who had stepped out of a painting.

She stood on a small wooden boat, her slender fingers gripping the oars, gently rocking it.

The lanterns at the bow of the boat dispelled the darkness and thick fog, but also swayed along with the boat.

However, Yoshino Asahi saw it clearly through her spiritual vision: this woman was shrouded in a thick, foul aura that she had never seen before, and her vigilance was completely aroused.

monster!

And it's an extremely powerful monster!

Instinctively, I wanted to tug at Kujo Toru's sleeve to give him a hint, but I saw him shake his head slightly instead.

Ok?

Yoshino Asagi was puzzled, but trusting him, she restrained herself and quietly waited for further developments.

"This is a minor path to the underworld, a minor path to ghosts and gods."

"Pass through quietly and get to the other side."

"Without offerings, you cannot cross..."

As the song played, the small boat quietly came to a stop in front of the two of them.