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I: The Flowers Are Not Sleeping
Chapter 21: The Side of the Sunken Boat
I hate Heavenly Restriction!

***

Brother died in the bathtub at home.

The man who died in the bathtub stayed in the bathroom for a long time. For so long, the younger brother banged on the bathroom door out of panic, but there was no response from the bathroom.

In the past, if he knocked on the bathroom door so loudly while his brother was taking a bath, he would definitely get scolded by his brother, and a roar would come out of the bathroom. His brother's voice was so loud that he almost thought that the roar would exploded the bathroom door, but today there was no sound at all inside.

When he opened the door, he saw his brother leaning on the edge of the bathtub. His head was leaning weakly on the edge, as if he was too tired and took a nap in the bathroom for a while, but accidentally fell asleep.

He smelled a strong smell of rust, so strong that he almost spit out his overnight meal.

"Brother?" he shouted.

His brother didn't respond.

He walked over cautiously and touched his brother's head.

After just a slight touch, his brother's head slipped into the water in the bathtub.

"Big brother!"

When he hurriedly picked up his brother's head from the bathtub, he lowered his head and looked down. The water in the bathtub was bright red and warm, and his childish face was vaguely reflected.

His brother's face was also pale, without any blood. His blood-stained hands and pale face were reflected in the blood-red water.

[The deceased was Eiichiro Yamamoto, who lived in Shinjuku, Tokyo. He was found dead in the bathroom of his home at 21:35 pm on July 14, 2005. Mitsuo Yamamoto, the deceased's younger brother, who discovered the deceased.

The lower body of the deceased was missing, and the cross-section of the body was full of bite marks. The body seemed to have been bitten off by some large beast. In addition, the remnants of the curse were also captured at the scene.]

Satoru held a milk popsicle in his mouth, propped up his cheeks, and leaned against the assistant director's car door. He listened to the assistant director's information half distractedly and half attentively.

The assistant director's car was parked on the side of the road. The long poles of the roadside sign cast slender shadows. The colorfully painted billboards were hung in the small shops on the side of the road. The temperature on the asphalt road was frightening. Crack an egg on top and wait for a while before it's done.

"Satoru, the popsicle is about to melt." Satoru came back to his senses and found that Suguru was still holding the report mission in his hand, squinting his fox eyes habitually to remind himself.

Satoru opened his mouth and swallowed most of the popsicle into his mouth. He bit into pieces of the popsicle and the cold sweetness slid down his mouth and into his throat. Satoru felt a little better.

It's really hot this summer.

Satoru thought as he held the remaining popsicle stick in his mouth.

The assistant director drove Satoru and Suguru to Eiichiro Yamamoto's home in Shinjuku. The house had been cordoned off, and the police had put up a yellow cordon with clear signs prohibiting unauthorized persons from approaching.

Satoru pushed up his small sunglasses, and before the assistant director could finish speaking to the policeman, he opened the cordon and got in. He wanted to make a show together, and Suguru followed closely behind.

The assistant director secretly complained that he was really unlucky today as he was sent to assist these two demon kings who were both well-known in the circle of assistant director.

The assistant director had to conceal the part about the cursed spirit. After simply showing his identity and explaining the situation, the policeman looked at Satoru and Suguru suspiciously, knowing that his superior had called him and asked him to put the people in quickly. After that, he stopped pursuing it.

Not long after the communication here, Satoru and Suguru opened the cordon and came out.

"How is it?" the policeman who was communicating with the assistant director couldn't help but ask.

"It's nothing." The white-haired boy said lazily, "You don't have to worry about this anymore. There's nothing you can do about it anymore."

After Satoru finished speaking, he took out the lollipop in his pocket as he walked. After tearing off the candy wrapper, he threw the candy into his mouth and put it in his pocket with one hand.

The policeman looked at the young man's back and paused.

The fox-eyed boy with man bun smiled at him and followed Satoru's footsteps.

After getting into the assistant director's car, Satoru took the report that was placed on the passenger seat. There was more than one similar death in that report, Eiichiro Yamamoto. Satoru took the report and flipped through it, summarizing it, and found these deceased people had visited the hot spring village in Yamanashi Prefecture nearly a month before their death.

"Do you have an idea?" Suguru narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah." Satoru said enthusiastically, "Suguru, I heard that the hot springs town in Yamanashi Prefecture is very famous."

The assistant director who was driving in the front driver's seat was confused. What time of day did you actually want to go to the hot spring village?!

Suguru understood, "Then let's go to the hot springs town in Yamanashi Prefecture."

Suguru said, pointing to the place names in the report.

Assistant director: "...Geto-kun, are you serious?"

Were you serious? This was still on task! ! !

"Serious." Suguru smiled like a fox, "So I'm sorry to bother you."

The assistant director was confused until Satoru came up impatiently and said, "Are you going? If you don't want to drive me there, I will drive myself."

Suguru looked at Satoru in confusion, "When did you take the driver's license test?"

This guy was obviously underage, where did he get his driver's license?

Satoru held a lollipop in his mouth and said vaguely, "Driver's license? I don't have one."

"But I've driven a bumper car before." Satoru was full of confidence. He bounced on his seat a few times and was eager to try. "Driving a car is almost the same as driving a bumper car. Don't worry, Suguru. I and you are the strongest. Drive a car, no problem."

Suguru: "..."

No, bumper cars and cars were very different.

The assistant director listened to the conversation between these two unlucky guys in confusion. He didn't have time to say a word. These two guys were stalking each other, one was a good guy and the other was a bad guy, and they had to go to the hot spring village. In the end, Satoru simply jumped out of the back seat and said he would drive.

The white cat was eager to try, and the assistant director looked at him as horrified as Godzilla, so he had no choice but to take them to the hot springs town in Yamanashi Prefecture.

If Satoru really drove the car, he would never want his car again.

After getting off the car, they disappeared instantly.

The assistant director was left alone and confused at the parking lot, and finally held his head in pain.

He never wanted to meet these two little b*stards again.

The two little b*stards wandered around the hot springs town for a long time with the assistant director's report. Eiichiro Yamamoto was not the only victim. The report clearly stated that the victims had all been to the hot springs town and which hotels they had visited. The hot springs here were very famous. At this time, many people would come here to soak in the hot springs. If the cursed spirit could not be exorcised in time, the victims may not be exterminated.

So the two high school boys could only collect information from hotel to hotel. The places where the curse occurred were distributed in various regions of Japan. Eiichiro Yamamoto's family lived in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and the last similar incident was in Kanagawa, and the deceased was on a business trip. He died in the hotel bathroom during the process, and the remnants was also captured at the scene.

Different people, different places of occurrence. To activate the curse remotely, the curse needed to be planted in advance. The victims had been to the hot springs town of Yamanashi Prefecture at the same time, so they were most likely to have the curse planted in Yamanashi Prefecture. The curse usually stayed at the place of birth. They need to go to the corresponding location to remove the curse.

Now it was necessary to determine where the curse was planted on them, and mark what people who have visited the hotel have done here, what they have eaten, and the places they have been. Suguru carefully marked it in the report.

When they arrived at Nozawa Hotel, Satoru ran away again.

Suguru: "..."

Grass. (A plant.) [1]

Satoru captured a wild little redhead. Suguru obviously noticed that Satoru, who was not interested in the task, suddenly became happy and began to stroke the redhead's hair and pinch the redhead's face. Satoru fell asleep with the head without paying attention (no).

When Satoru brought Yayoi back, his face was a little red. It was very hot this summer, but it didn't make Satoru blush to the point of being steamed.

"Anyway, this redhead is... stupid." Satoru told Suguru with an awkward expression.

Suguru thought it's a little funny, no, it's super funny.

Suguru suddenly remembered that when he was in the first grade of junior high school, there was a boy who always liked to pull the hair of the girl sitting in front of him. The girl was annoyed by him and told the teacher. The teacher liked the well-behaved girl very much, so he called the boy to the office and gave him a lesson. The boy later failed to behave and continued to pull the girl's hair.

The force was neither light nor heavy, and would not hurt the scalp or make the girl's hair fall.

Later, all the boys in Suguru's class took a big risk and asked them call the girl they liked. They had to shout the name of the girl they liked super loudly. Suguru didn't have a girl he liked, so he didn't shout, but the boy who always liked to pull the hair of the girl sitting in front of him call the girl's name.

He liked her but always teased her.

Suguru saw the roots of Satoru's ears that were completely red and thought, wasn't it true?

He looked at the short little red-haired girl again. Yayoi was only twelve years old. Satoru was not that beastly... right?

Suguru suddenly found that he had no idea whether Satoru was a beast or not.

Well, forget it.

When Satoru really lost his morals and attacked Yayoi, and then summoned Shoko to come and cause trouble... ah no, it's better to save his humanity.

Don't even think about getting out of single before him!

Suguru smiled and patted Satoru on the shoulder and told him, "After removing the curse, let's soak in the hot springs here for a while."

Satoru felt it made sense. How long has it been since he went to a hot spring to enjoy a vacation?

#The rotten oranges at the top were not good people#

Satoru held a lollipop in his mouth and decided to send the curse to the west as soon as possible to welcome the arrival of the holidays.

The wind chimes under the eaves were spinning in the wind, and the texture of the glass made the reflected sunlight so bright that it was dazzling. The blue above the head extended into the distance until it connected with the mountains.

Suguru was also looking forward to the leisure time after exorcised the cursed spirit.

After confirmed that the location of the curse was the famous haunted spot, the azukiarai bridge, Satoru didn't feel much surprise.

The bridge was built in the Edo period. Peasant women in the Edo period often washed clothes, vegetables and other food here. When the harvest was not good, the whole family could only eat some beans. The rumor that it was haunted was that a peasant woman was washing the beans. After she fell into the river and drowned, the peasant woman's body sank to the bottom of the river. The people who came to retrieve the body could not retrieve it no matter how hard they came. After the anti-barbarian movement began, the riverbank became a place of execution. Too many people died and the accumulated negative emotions increased.

After the economic development of this area, the azukiarai bridge became a famous supernatural place. There were always some people who wanted to risk their lives and came here to hunt for strange things. The panic, timidity and fear they exuded became nutrients for the growth of curses.

According to the information collected by Satoru and Suguru, the victims had all been to the 'azukiarai bridge'.

Therefore, the weak ones were the most troublesome, and they were weak and always caused trouble for others.

Satoru stood at the bridge, scratching his hair irritably.

Just as Mrs. Nozawa described, this bridge was built by people cutting down wood from the mountain at that time. Because the wooden boards have decayed a lot over time, it looked shaky, but it did not collapse after all.

There were lush reeds growing on both sides of the river bank, and the reeds were rising and falling in the evening breeze.

Satoru stepped onto the bridge, and there was an overwhelming creaking sound from the half-rotted wooden boards under his feet.

The mobile phone in Satoru's pocket suddenly rang, and the caller on the screen was 'Little Redhead'. The white cat raised his eyes, Yayoi actually called him?

Would the sun rise in the west tomorrow?

Satoru pressed the answer button leisurely, "Hey?"

"Are you in the azukiarai bridge? Oh, you are here." Yayoi's voice came from the phone.

When the white cat heard the little red hair rushing this way, he immediately stood up and looked left and right with his cell phone, but he didn't see where Yayoi was.

Satoru then thought of Yayoi's five senses, and maybe she could already feel their presence here.

"Huh?" Satoru said, "Wouldn't it be better for you to be as far away from the cursed place as possible? You redhead, can't you understand human language?"

"I don't want to come either." Yayoi's voice was as steady as an old dog's. "Mrs. Nozawa's son is gone. No, he's gone."

Satoru: "...what the hell?"

Someone else was cursed?

Yayoi thought for a long time and finally found a reasonable way to express it, "It doesn't seem to be the case. Mrs. Nozawa's son went to the azukiarai bridge."

Satoru: "..."

What's wrong with these brats? Were they going to kill people wherever they want? And redhead, could your expression ability be any worse?

"He said he was going to do courage test with his friends." Yayoi said.

Satoru: "Courage test. Are they here to die?"

"They went earlier than you and may have crossed the bridge." Yayoi said.

Six Eyes did not notice anyone else for a while, which only meant that they were most likely pulled into the cursed birth domain, and the cursed spirits that could use the birth domain were most likely to be special grade cursed spirits.

"Crossing the bridge" had a special meaning in mantras. In Japanese legends, after death, a person had to cross a bridge over the Sanzu River to lead to the other world, which was another world belonging to the dead. Then the condition for entering the birth domain of the cursed spirits was most likely to be "crossing the bridge."

Satoru frowned, "I understand, don't come over again, I and Suguru will handle it."

Although Yayoi was bound by Heavenly Restriction and her body was much stronger than ordinary people, in the final analysis she did not even have the power to exorcise the cursed spirit.

Satoru turned around and saw a flash of red. In the dark night, the coldness of the moonlight was somewhat diffused by the warm red.

Satoru just blinked, and Yayoi came to him.

Satoru: "..."

What's wrong?

Little Red Hair put down her phone, "It's too late, I'm here."

Satoru: "...I hate Heavenly Restriction!!!"

Zero cursed energy couldn't be detected by Six Eyes, okay?!

"How did you manage to run without making any noise?!" Satoru threw the phone into Suguru's arms, stretched out his hand and pinched the girl's face angrily and began to squeeze it.

"Uh-huh-" Just run away.

"Anyway, you are not allowed to cross the bridge." Satoru let go of Yayoi's face, and her face turned red from his pinch. The fingerprints left on it formed a sharp contrast with the fair skin.

Yayoi rubbed her cheek and nodded honestly.

In the end, Suguru came out to smooth things over. The black-haired boy looked at the other end of the bridge. There was a light layer of mist in the forest shrouded in the night, which really seemed to live up to the name of a supernatural place.

"Yayoi-chan is waiting here for Satoru and me to come out." Suguru said, "Satoru, did you see anything?"

Satoru had a stinky face, raised his eyes, pulled down his sunglasses and looked inside, "I see, those brats are inside, but they are in a bit strange condition."

"Then we have to hurry up." Suguru frowned.

Satoru clicked his tongue, "I understand."

***

· Genuine translation can be found only in OchatimesBlogspotCom, FanFictionNet, and Wattpad

• Omake •

Brother Suguru: Don't think about getting out of single before me.

(Finally got divorced first)

False Heavenly Restriction: Yayoi.

The real Heavenly Restriction: Daddy (Toji Fushiguro).

Satoru's truly annoying Heavenly Restriction: Daddy (Toji Fushiguro).

Daddy: It's none of my business.

[1] Grass: cao (草, in Chinese, a plant); F*ck: cao (肏, in Chinese, vulgar one); so mostly they use the 'grass 草' to censor it and mostly because it's funny to use the alternate words



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