Tokyo Fall Guys beats up the supernatural

Page 135

Dou Tang released his grip and said, "Xiao Yin, quickly flip it over! Just like you're holding a water glass, don't squeeze it too hard!"

Xiao Yin hurriedly flipped the dough over, but in her haste, she squeezed out so much juice that her hands were covered in it.

Dou Tang reluctantly jumped off the box and walked forward, only to see Xiao Yin smiling and pointing at him, so he looked down.

Good heavens, the persimmon in his hand was dripping with juice. Dou Tang quickly covered his mouth with it, but it still made a mess.

"Bang!"

Suddenly, the door of the cabin was pushed open, and Ren Zhanyi, leaning on a cane, appeared in the doorway.

Ren Zhanyi glanced at the two disheveled children, chuckled, and said, "Instead of sleeping properly, you're here stealing other people's persimmons."

Ren Doutang chewed on a persimmon seed and said, "Didn't I send them a box of milk during the day? What's wrong with eating a couple of persimmons?"

Ren Zhanyi walked into the hut, both amused and exasperated, and said, "You talk too much. Alright, go pick one for me too."

Hearing this, Ren Doutang sucked the juice out of the persimmon in a few bites, casually threw away the peel, nodded, and walked out of the hut. Xiao Yin, meanwhile, obediently sucked on her persimmon inside.

A moment later, the sound of a water tap came from the yard, and then Dou Tang, with wet hands, returned to the hut, carrying three persimmons in her hands.

"I told you to pick one, but you picked three instead," Ren Zhanyi complained.

"Eat it tomorrow morning." Dou Tang said, tossing one to Ren Zhanyi, then added, "Dad, you won't be going out again until you've recovered from your injuries, right?"

Ren Zhanyi wiped the water off the persimmons on his clothes, a gesture exactly like Dou Tang's.

He took a bite, smacked his lips for a while, and then said, "That's not up to me. It depends on whether anyone needs us, right?"

Dou Tang shrugged and said, "Alright, so when do you plan to retire?"

Ren Zhanyi glared at him upon hearing this: "I'm only forty, and you're already thinking about making me retire?"

"At least I won't be so tired," Dou Tang said nonchalantly.

Ren Zhanyi shook his head, then said, "Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about you two siblings. You're not clueless kids anymore. You should know our family rules, right?"

He sighed.

"Haoli and Guibo, have you two made your choices yet?"

Dou Tang was silent for a moment, then patted his chest and said, "Of course I've thought it through."

"If she lives, I die."

Huaiyin, who was listening nearby, suddenly froze.

"If she lives, I die..."

Dou Tang suddenly repeated it again.

But Ren Zhanyi and Xiao Yin did not react.

"She lives... I die..."

Dou Tang repeated himself, then loosened his grip, and the persimmon fell to the ground. He stared blankly at Xiao Yin, his face expressionless.

Huaiyin suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded, and the dream before her eyes began to dissipate. The boxes in the hut that were originally clear began to turn into blurry gray cubes.

Then, it was Dou Tang's own figure that gradually transformed into an iron-gray humanoid object, with only his bewitching eyes still fixed on Xiao Yin.

Ren Zhanyi's figure also dissipated into a cloud of mist and disappeared into the dream.

Only at the very end did Xiao Yin's figure gradually fade away, and the entire dream gradually dimmed, slowly turning into complete darkness.

Huaiyin shuddered and woke up.

She suddenly realized that she was being held tightly in Dou Tang's arms while he was asleep.

She buried her face in Dou Tang's embrace, took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and then raised her head, noticing that her head was a little wet.

Dou Tang, who was asleep, had tears streaming down his face.

Chapter 20 Japan's Number One Vengeful Spirit

Looking at Dou Tang's tear-streaked face, Huai Yin quietly lowered her head and snuggled closer into his arms, until their bodies were pressed tightly together without any gap.

If everything in the dream is a fact that actually happened, then... does one of Dou Tang and Xiao Yin have to die?

What exactly are Haoli and Guibo?

Moreover... judging from previous memories, it was Dou Tang who survived, not Xiao Yin. When this older brother decided to sacrifice himself, he got the exact opposite result he had expected.

That's probably why he said those things before, telling me to kill him and to win the Crown game, something he couldn't do before, and now he plans to do it again.

This person plans to try sacrificing himself again to make up for past regrets.

Once Huaiyin understood this, she felt an even greater pain in her heart. The constant palpitations were unbearable, so she could only hug Doutang tighter and tighter, yearning for the embrace of the person in front of her to gain some sense of security and some solace for her intensely pounding emotions.

She gradually raised her head, buried it in Dou Tang's neck, gently nuzzled against it, and even opened her mouth.

The passing vehicles outside the window left fleeting glimpses of light on the curtains, accompanied by the clanging of metal objects—the sound of vehicles rolling over manhole covers on the ground.

Huaiyin gently sniffed Doutang's neck, drawing upon her few remaining feelings of security.

If there really comes a day when the Crown game ends, I...

What choice would he make?

What did Xiao Yin do back then?

Now, she can only continue to rely on others in her confusion, unable to let go.

The choices she would make from now on would gamble with all the experiences she had had so far, even her life itself. This was something she had known for a long time, but it wasn't until this mundane and simple dream ended that she truly felt its reality.

The man she held in her arms was the one who would choose to die for her without hesitation, the man she had loved and who had been close to her blood relatives.

How can I choose to have the best of both worlds?

The bedroom darkened again, and the faint sound of car horns could be heard from the distant city, but it was irrelevant to her.

The two embraced, and Huaiyin slowly closed her eyes.

I have so little, so I don't want to lose it.

………………

Lu Zizhen got into her car and dialed a number.

"Hello, Yingtong Sangui Hotel, how may I help you?"

“I have an appointment, number 19823.”

"...Understood, I'll transfer you now."

This is an exorcist intelligence agency disguised as a hotel. In addition to providing protection services within the hotel itself, it also offers remote intelligence sales to the outside world.

After a while, a childish male voice came from the other end of the phone, sounding like a kid.

"Ms. Lu Zizhen, is there anything you need?"

Lu Zizhen sat in the car, took out a lollipop from the storage box on the passenger side, tore off the wrapper and put it in her mouth, then said, "I need the cleanup work for the fire outside Tokyo, as well as the sealing of the 'living mouths'. Oh, and I also need to know if any new types of evil spirits have appeared in Tokyo recently."

The service provider on the other end of the phone paused for a moment, then said, "The cleanup and sealing off of the fire at the abandoned mental hospital... We have found six people with relevant information, as well as one person who is suspected to be missing."

“Don’t worry about the missing persons, I’ll take responsibility for this. As for the other six, keep them completely silent… keep them completely silent.”

"Understood. Sealing the mouth requires at least a week of preparation time. Also, regarding the new type of evil spirit you inquired about... the most noteworthy one should be the soulless corpse incident. This matter may be somewhat related to you."

Lu Zizhen raised an eyebrow curiously and said, "Hmm? Tell me about it."

The sound of pages turning came from the other end of the phone.

"According to our intelligence, there have been several cases of stolen corpses in Tokyo. Most of these corpses were either victims of violent deaths or involved in exorcisms. Subsequently, these corpses often appear in a form that is similar to that of normal people, and most of them retain their rationality from when they were alive."

"go on."

"After treating these corpses, it was discovered that there was no soul in them."

Lu Zizhen asked curiously, "It has a personality from its previous life, but no soul?"

"Yes, but some exorcists speculate that it's not that there are no souls, but that something takes away their souls the moment these corpses are exorcised."

Lu Zizhen crunched on her lollipop, pondering, "Does it possess a stronger soul manipulation ability than ordinary people...? Did these corpses cause any damage?"

"Not so far." The child's voice on the other end of the phone also sounded puzzled: "That's the problem. These soulless corpses seem to be searching for something in Tokyo, wandering around without causing any incidents."

"Is someone manipulating them to find something?"

"Some of the older generation thought the same way, but they still haven't caught up with these soulless corpses."

Lu Zizhen nodded and continued, "Are there any other interesting events?"

"Yes, but it's not a new type of evil spirit."

"Tell me."

"Lord Taira no Masakado... has awakened."

Lu Zizhen became serious: "Taiba Masakado? The one among the Four Great Vengeful Spirits?"

The person on the other end of the phone didn't seem to notice the disrespect in Lu Zizhen's tone, but for people in Japan, Taira no Masakado was a well-known vengeful spirit.

This Lord Taira no Masakado was the only powerful military commander in Japanese history to openly rebel against the Emperor and establish his own imperial title.

Taira no Masakado, who ignited war in the mid-Heian period, once declared himself emperor and challenged the imperial court, a treasonous act worthy of being recorded in history in Japan, a country that valued lineage and class. Furthermore, legend has it that his mother was a giant serpent mountain god, possessing a body of steel, and that he kept six shadow warriors as his clones.

But no matter what, his rebellion was finally over. His clone was exposed, and the only part of his forehead that didn't turn into steel was shot by an arrow in the chaos of battle.

Later, historical records state that Taira no Masakado's spirit haunted the emperor multiple times. Even after his head was cut off, his head and body could still move independently, even though they were thousands of miles apart. The terrifying and moving head almost scared the emperor to death.

Finally, Taira no Masakado's head soared into the sky from Kyoto and flew eastward, landing in what is now Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. Later generations built the Masakado Head Mound here and established a shrine to offer sacrifices from time to time to appease his resentment.

It is said that Taira no Masakado's body was dismembered by his subordinates and taken to various parts of Japan, where shrines were built to appease the vengeful spirits. Therefore, there are actually shrines dedicated to Taira no Masakado throughout Japan.

Nowadays, the shrine of Taira no Masakado in Tokyo has actually become a place where ceremonies are held whenever large-scale civil engineering projects are being built in Tokyo, and its symbolic significance outweighs that of Taira no Masakado himself.

However, Taira no Masakado is still considered the foremost of Japan's four great vengeful spirits.

Now, he... has awakened? This seems too...

To tell a story from Arabian Nights.

Lu Zizhen continued, "And then what happened?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone before someone slowly said, "Lord Taira no Masakado said that the Sanzu River is in turmoil."

Chapter 21 The Soul's Destination

Lu Zizhen remained silent for a long time, then asked in confusion, "Huh?"

The person on the other end of the phone sighed and said, "I understand. It sounds like a fantasy, but according to Lord Taira no Masakado, the final destination for all the dead is the Sanzu River."

“From ancient times to the present, exorcists have always taken it upon themselves to exorcise evil spirits. Now, a true vengeful spirit who has returned from the Sanzu River has verified the final destination of all evil spirits and the dead.”

“In our world, the River of Three Crossings exists, as does Hell.”

"According to Lord Taira no Masakado, both the Sanzu River and Hell are unguarded, intangible spaces. All souls are eventually randomly assigned to either the Sanzu River or Hell and vanish there... But as for whether reincarnation exists, Lord Taira no Masakado said he could not say for sure."

"He can't figure out what it means either? Didn't he already go there?" Lu Zizhen narrowed her eyes.

If Hell and the River of Three Crossings existed simultaneously, what would Doutang... or even China... be like?

Does this mean that there are many places where the dead go after death? And that these places vary depending on the region? That sounds too... too human.

Indeed, it's incredibly user-friendly.

For example, in the Fall Guys world, although I haven't experienced it myself, according to Dou Tang, it is also a place used to purify the soul. If a single being like Dou Tang can have a hellish space, then other beings' hells or rivers of three paths... could there also be individuals who reside there?

Even if they don't have owners, why do they match the accounts in the living people's beliefs? Does it mean that someone went in alive and came out alive?

The person on the other end of the phone continued to explain: "Lord Taira no Masakado said that the reason the Sanzu River is restless is because he sensed that some souls that should have belonged there have disappeared."

“The fact that souls that should return to the Sanzu River after death are disappearing in the real world is a very serious problem.”

"He returned to the real world to solve this problem, and he also said that, according to his speculation, the same problem may have occurred in Hell as well."

Lu Zizhen's heart jumped.

Indeed, Dou Tang is special.

He killed the evil spirits, cleansed their souls, and used their resentment as sustenance to enhance his own power.

He is special.

Although Lu Zizhen always jokingly referred to him as "walking hell," she never really thought about whether hell really existed in this world.

And now, there is not only hell in the world, but probably many more?