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

Upon hearing Kerry mention something unseen, the boss's pupils contracted, and he looked at Kerry again with some panic.

"You...you're from the government?"

I don't know how he came to that conclusion.

But Kerry didn't deny it; let him guess if he wanted.

Seeing Kerry's attitude, the boss seemed to have confirmed his suspicions, clenched his fist, and then relaxed it.

"Fine, this is what we deserve. I'll explain it to you, but these things really have nothing to do with the children's generation..."

Then the boss told a strange story.

There was a group of people who initially lived in a village not far from Tokyo. In their village, it was popular to worship a spirit, which was said to be a monster that had once circulated in the area after World War II. Later, as the economy recovered, people built a shrine, set up a shrine for a priestess, and made offerings. The monster's haunting disappeared.

They also believe this is a symbol of the extinguishing of the being's anger.

Although this is common in Japan, people just treat any demonic or evil spirits as gods and kowtow to them.

Everyone felt this wasn't a good method, so in the early years they invited an Onmyoji to set up a formation for the shrine's rear hall, using repeated mirrors, incorrect signposts, and a blessing rope, supposedly to prevent the enshrined objects from finding their way out.

Life went on like this, and since the shrine wasn't particularly effective, no one took it seriously. But then a series of strange things started happening.

Four years ago, the shrine's rear hall began to show signs of erosion from rainwater due to years of neglect. Moreover, as time went by, the younger generation no longer believed in these beliefs and even started to criticize the anime version of Amaterasu Omikami, let alone minor deities that were only worshipped in their hometowns.

Then the young people organized a renovation project, and the result was quite unexpected.

The young people were very puzzled after the renovation was completed. They all said, "Isn't what we were worshipping a stone statue of a god? Why is there a golden Buddha statue here?"

But in fact, since the Yin-Yang Master set up the formation, the old villagers had no idea what was going on inside, no one went in to cause trouble, and they didn't know anything about any Buddha statues.

The shop owner paused at this point in his story.

Then he sighed and shook his head.

"If only we had realized it back then."

After that renovation, strange things started happening in the village. People would suddenly change their personalities and harm others, and they would fall ill with strange diseases. Even moving away didn't help. We thought maybe the magic formation from back then had broken, and the gods were angry with us and imprisoned it as revenge. Later, we even invited a medium, but he also died tragically in the village.

"And then you burned the shrine down in a fit of anger?"

Kerry asked curiously, after all, if this happened in a neighboring country, the local government would definitely have taken the lead in destroying the Four Olds, and if they were hot-tempered, they might even have dragged out the idol and tortured it.

Upon hearing what Kerry said, the boss looked at Kerry with some surprise.

"How could that be? Then, in order to appease the wrath of the deity, we resumed the worship."

And it really worked back then.

As he said this, a look of reminiscence flashed in the old man's eyes.

"In just half a year, all the villagers who participated in the worship made a fortune. Those who had jobs got promoted, those who were studying got into Waseda University, and those who were in business got rich quickly. Even those who had suddenly changed their temperament became gentle and told everyone how to make offerings to the Buddha Mother."

Only then did we realize that it was the golden Buddha Mother who had appeared out of nowhere, not our Qiongqiong Long-Nosed Deity, who had been helping us all along.

However, greed is an insatiable thing; once people have fulfilled their desire to get rich, they start to crave more.

We chant sutras day and night in the shrine, making more and more demands. First, we ask for a little wealth and status, and for our children to go to school. But after those are fulfilled, we want to continue to dominate the market, and we also want to be healthy and live a long life.

well……"

At this point, the boss let out a long sigh.

"But it was also around that time, three years ago during the New Year, that we learned that the Buddha Mother's wishes all come at a price. Every one of us who offered our own and our children's names to the Buddha Mother was considered to be her property. When she needed our lives, we were powerless to resist. At that time, many of us contracted a strange disease, a very painful one. The hair, teeth, and nails on the affected person would fall out little by little, but the hospital couldn't find anything wrong. That's when we realized something."

At that time, our village, wanting to guard this secret to wealth, always forbade outsiders from worshipping the Buddha Mother. However, only one family broke this rule, bringing their distant relatives to worship. We punished them, but that time, they were the only family that didn't fall ill. The Buddha Mother's meaning couldn't be clearer: She wanted more people to join her worship, and we, those who benefited from her, would all become her slaves.

"so……?"

Kerry deduced from the premise that what the old man said was true, and combined with the memory fragments he saw last night, he had pieced together a rough outline of what happened and guessed the outcome.

The boss took a deep breath.

"Therefore, we made a decision that goes against our ancestors' wishes. We do not want to live day and night worshipping the Buddha Mother, nor do we want our grandchildren to have to dedicate their entire lives to spreading the teachings of the Buddha Mother from birth."

After a vote, we decided to smash the mirrors, remove the statue of the Buddha Mother, and take it to Tokyo.

We felt that the reason the Buddha Mother was like this was because she was also trapped in that formation. Since that was the case, we let her move freely. The wealthy people funded the construction of a park and moved the statue of the Buddha Mother there, just across a shrine, facing the entire city of Tokyo. At that time, the Buddha Mother and the Shadow Lord would take the lives of several of us every year. Of course, the village could not bear it, but if it was Tokyo, it wouldn't matter if two people died. That was what we thought at the time.

And it really worked; the illness was cured after I moved to Tokyo.

However, rumors soon spread that one could kill by making a wish before a Buddhist shrine, and that one could exchange their own life for the life of their enemy. Alas…

111

Chapter 111 All Clues Recovered

Kerry's face darkened upon hearing what the other person said.

That makes sense now.

The story of killing someone by wishing has been heard since Totsuki Academy. Because this is not something that a particular cult is promoting, it is probably more like an urban legend, so it is widely known. However, most people probably do not know the reason behind it, so it is just a rumor.

It's just that when Senzaemon Nakiri had his men gather clues, he found this first, rather than any Deep One-related information that was deliberately hidden.

The unseen monster also fits the description; it must be some kind of evil spirit, the god that the villagers worshipped before. After being released, it killed people along some kind of path, and the old man and his group thought it was the Buddha Mother collecting offerings, or perhaps they thought it was one of the Buddha Mother's subordinates.

The mess they made and the fact that they were being followed when they went out at the beginning seemed to match up. The street where they lived was probably because the residents of that village moved out and came to Tokyo, and for convenience, they all chose to buy houses on that street.

Thinking about it this way, the old ladies from the town association on the first day they moved here might have been from those villagers, or they might have been proselytized by those villagers.

The villagers must have moved to Tokyo collectively two years ago, and the Buddha statue was moved there around the same time. They probably didn't place the Buddha statue too far away from them, as they likely still need to worship it daily. This also coincides with the time when the low-probability crimes Kirito collected suddenly started occurring more frequently on this street.

There are only two unanswered questions: one is what's so special about Kerry's house, and why did those people initially seem to want them to leave, but later start warning them not to go out?

"So why did you hire someone to tell us not to go out?"

Kerry felt that this question could explain everything that came before.

Upon hearing Kerry's words, the old man shook his head in annoyance.

"If I had known that this would be the outcome, I certainly wouldn't have thought to warn you."

When the Shadow Lord is on his main mission, he goes to the room where we placed the offerings, but sometimes after finishing at one room, he might go to another.

For some reason, Shadow never visits that house, so we used to hide inside whenever Shadow arrived. However, that house is also strange; strange things happen every time we stay there at night, so we don't dare to stay there for long.

We wanted to buy the house, but it seemed to have been bought by a big shot. We were even warned when we tried to find out who the owner was. However, no one lived there for several months. Fearing that someone might move in, we could only spread the word that the house used to be haunted.

"But now that you're here, we'll have to find somewhere else."

Kerry nodded in agreement with the old man's statement, because when they moved in, they did find it strange that there was not much dust on the first floor, but there was quite a bit on the second and third floors.

The main reason that the shadow didn't come might be because there was already a ghost inside.

The previous owner of that house was the village chief, who bought the house because of an old friend, but only as a memento.

That night, that shadow must have attacked the neighbor next door.

However, Kerry was wrong. Last night, those people had already placed offerings in the drain in front of their house, and since they went out almost every night, those people had calculated that they were going to die last night.

But there's one last strange point: if that's the case, warning them not to go out, and the place they live in is a safe house, isn't that protecting them?

Seeing the puzzled look in Krina's eyes.

The boss let out a long sigh.

“I saw you chatting with Yasuda before. Ueno and I are friends. He used to wander around this street a lot. I even invited him to work at my shop, but he didn’t want to. I also advised him to come to that street less often, but he insisted that he had some secret base in the sewers. Yasuda also often came to see him, so we know each other.”

Ueno disappeared later. Yasuda said he went missing. Since you and that slovenly old man get along so well, he probably isn't a bad person.

It was all just hypocrisy. That day, I found a stray kitten in the back alley that had been half-eaten by some big cats. I thought about how young you all were, so I spent some money to hire those kids to tell you to stay home. Maybe that way you wouldn't get involved. But now it seems I was overthinking it. You're here to investigate this, aren't you?

Heh, I can tolerate that thing randomly killing people, but I don't want to see a few young people I can stand die. Maybe that's just human nature.

I confess. Although I opposed the villagers trying to take that thing out, I didn't stop them when they decided to. Over the years, I've gone from renting a place in Tokyo to opening this shop. Because of that thing, I made a lot of money, bought the shop, and now I have my own home. But my children are innocent. They were just forced by us old fogies to go and worship. You can investigate all of this. Take me away.”

After speaking, the old shop owner calmly spread his hands.

Yasuda is the homeless man who talked to Kerry about the sewers.

When he finished speaking, he stopped using the honorific title "Buddha Mother" and instead used the term "that thing."

Undoubtedly, this old man was a very complex person, with both good and evil aspects, but Kerry had no intention of letting him go.

Thinking about how to leave after the murder, Kerry sniffed the air.

But then they discovered something was wrong.

Downstairs! There's a delicious smell coming from downstairs!

Kerry stood up amidst the old man's surprised gaze.

They rushed downstairs only to discover a truly horrifying scene.

As a Japanese restaurant, deep-frying is an essential part of its cuisine.

But at that moment, the old lady downstairs suddenly unleashed a strength she shouldn't have, lifting up the small fryer that was still plugged in.

Then she turned and gave Kerry a strange smile as he came down the stairs, and poured the boiling hot oil directly onto her body, which was still covered in a cotton-padded jacket.

"Ahhhh!"

A horrifying scream and a sound like hot oil being poured on noodles rang out simultaneously, and steam rose from the small shop.

The terrifying bubbles were inflating at a speed visible to the naked eye, but Kerry's gaze was no longer on that spot. Instead, he was staring in one direction, where the bubbles were also invisible, but this one was far superior to anything he had seen before.

The other two happened at night, but this is a busy downtown area in broad daylight, and the methods used seem to be mind control. The most powerful thing that the shadow did was to put people to sleep, which is much more ruthless.

Kerry could sense that the thing was fleeing out of the store.

Kerry chased after him without hesitation.

Push open the store door and chase that feeling amidst the crowded throng.

However, after Kerry had chased after him for more than 30 meters, a scream came from behind him.

"Ahhh!"

Kerry suddenly turned around.

The old man actually climbed out of the second-floor window, pointed a sharp pair of kitchen shears at his mouth, and jumped off the second floor.

"Crack!"

The scissors pierced the boss's brain, killing him instantly.