Su Qing'an had already learned about the client's identity before coming.
The Kanbara Family is a powerful local force in Kanagawa, wielding absolute influence in both local politics and business.
Its origins are ancient and long-standing; it is said that this family can be traced back to five hundred years ago. However, its reputation and status in Kanagawa have only risen in recent decades. Before that, the Kambara Family was virtually unknown.
The client was Kambara Shuichi, the head of the Kambara Family.
As the current leader of the Kanbara Zaibatsu family, he now controls a vast conglomerate centered on information technology and machinery industries.
The Kambara Family has no collateral branches, and the main line has dwindled to the point that Kambara Shuichi and his young only daughter remain.
It is truly unbelievable that such a powerful and influential family in the area has only two members left.
This is an old house with a long history. As the head of a conglomerate, the decoration here is undoubtedly not very eye-catching. The old Western style is the main theme of the house.
Meanwhile, Kambara Shuichi knelt on the tatami mat, which had a completely different style, with a solemn expression.
This man is 39 years old, in his prime, a time when a man's energy is at its peak and he is ready to make great strides.
However, at only 39 years old, Kambara Shuichi appeared excessively old. His hair, which should have been black, was now covered in silver, and wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. It seemed as if most of his vitality had been prematurely drained from his body.
Judging by his appearance alone, he is already approaching fifty years old.
But his back was ramrod straight, like a pine tree standing firm in the dead of winter.
When Su Qing'an met his gaze, it seemed as if a lion was hiding in his eyes.
Kambara Shuichi hadn't aged; simply by looking into this man's eyes, he overturned Su Qing'an's initial impression of his appearance.
After bowing to Kambara Shuichi, the butler closed the door and left the room.
The man immediately raised his hand to gesture for the two to sit down, and said:
"I am Kambara Shuichi."
"Let me be blunt here. I know the true identity of the perpetrator. It wasn't a simple case of a monster transformed from a human committing crimes; rather, it's related to the sacrificial rituals that our village holds regularly."
Kambara Shuichi's words contained a great deal of information.
Contrary to the mission information that the true identity was suspected to Zombie, this man immediately refuted the possibility given by the Science Department.
"May I ask your names?" the man asked after a pause.
"Su Qing'an, the girl next to me is named Satou Yunona," Su Qing'an replied.
He knew that Kambara Shuichi hadn't finished speaking; this mission might not be as simple as they had initially thought, and the situation was clearly much more complicated.
If the original difficulty lay in finding the culprit, now that Kambara Shuichi knows the culprit's true identity, that difficulty has shifted.
The target of the shift is clearly in what the man is about to say.
"Su Qing'an, are you from Shenzhou? I'll call you Su-kun then." After repeating Su Qing'an's name in Shenzhou dialect, Kambara Shuichi looked at the two and said:
"Do Su-kun and Ms. Sato know what a ritual means?"
"Offering sacrifices to gods, Buddhas, or ancestors to express reverence and seek blessings is a common practice in Shenzhou," Su Qing'an gave a rather official answer.
Satou Yunona nodded. This kind of thing is not uncommon in Japan; in fact, it was a common practice in ancient times.
"You're right. The usual offerings are livestock, fruit, or wine, but in ancient, ignorant villages, there was a pernicious custom of sacrificing living people to the gods."
Satou Yunona and Su Qing'an frowned; just hearing about such a thing was unpleasant.
"Our village used to be like that too. The remaining historical records show that five hundred years ago, the villagers would regularly sacrifice living people to pray for rain."
"The ancients firmly believed that killing a pure maiden before the gods would bring torrential rain, but this barbaric custom has naturally been abandoned five hundred years later."
"It has been integrated into the village's customs in a seemingly gentle way. Every ten years, the village performs the Kagura Dance in front of exquisitely crafted, lifelike dolls of young girls in order to pray for peace."
For some reason, both of them felt a chill when they heard about the deeds of the Living Doll. It was undoubtedly a ritual that could be considered a ghost story. However, Su Qing'an felt something more than that. A deeper sense of strangeness made him uncomfortable.
That was the keen intuition brought about by the power of the Soul Essence.
Kambara Shuichi continued to narrate:
"The Kambara Family was a family that specialized in making mechanical dolls at that time. That lifelike girl doll was the Kambara Family heirloom. The villagers regarded it as the incarnation of a god on earth because of its strangeness and immortality."
"Therefore, the heavy responsibility of making offerings to it on a daily basis naturally fell on our shoulders."
"But maintaining the immortality of the Living Doll comes at a price. The villagers exchanged acknowledging the clan status of the Kambara Family for the Kambara Family bearing the curse."
"A curse?" Su Qing'an asked.
He naturally didn't believe in so-called curses or immortal dolls; in such a world, all supernatural events could be attributed to the Honkai to find the correct answer.
However, he was very curious about what kind of Honkai had affected the Kambara Family, to the point that he called it a curse.
Why can Living Doll be immortal?
"Yes, a curse. The Kanbara Clan has no collateral branches; even the main lineage has only two members left in my generation: my daughter and I."
"This is abnormal," Kambara Shuichi concluded calmly. "You should have noticed it, right? The discrepancy between my age and appearance is no coincidence. Few members of the Kambara Family live past fifty."
"It's like your life force has been devoured by something."
Honkai Energy.
Almost instantly, the two understood the true nature of that so-called "something".
"The reason lies in the method by which the Kambara Family maintains the immortality of the Living Doll. In addition to the methods passed down from generation to generation, the most important thing is that the Kambara Family performs rituals on the dolls."
Another ritual? Whether it's the rituals of the Kambara Family or the rituals of their village, they are definitely not simple things.
Kambara Shuichi's statement that the connection between the ritual and the true identity of the murderer was not without reason.
Su Qing'an and Satou Yunona understood this matter.
"Every ten years, the Kambara Family sends one of their sons to stay at the shrine with Living Doll for three days. During these three days, the Living Doll must be watered with their own blood every day. After three days, the doll will continue to maintain its lifelike spirit and be as good as new."
"The person in charge of the sacrifice would fall seriously ill afterward and often die shortly afterward. Because their deaths were almost always strange, cremation was usually chosen to avoid unnecessary trouble."
"These are photos of the remains of those who died during a ritual." A hint of pity appeared on the man's steely expression.
The photo shows a corpse covered in purple patterns.
"This is my father's remains. He passed away three months after the memorial service." Kambara Shuichi suppressed all his emotions, his eyes burning with an inextinguishable rage, as if a lion were about to leap out.
That kind of anger was like lava erupting from a volcano in the sea, cold yet fiery, calm yet ruthless.
Finally, the man said, word by word:
"What you are dealing with is the Living Doll of the Kambara Family, which has been guarded for five hundred years and worshipped by Kambara Village for five hundred years. It is a tragedy left behind by ignorant and outdated customs, and it is also a product of Honkai, which only Schicksal has the ability to eliminate."
Kambara Shuichi's resolute words were laced with murderous intent, and his face became ferocious and terrifying, an emotion that even an iron will could not suppress.
No one can understand how many things and stories are hidden in this man's demonic expression.
All I can understand is that profound, abyss-like sorrow.
But sorrow itself is the greatest demon; how can you possibly defeat it?
You can't escape it, you can't avoid it. The only way is to transform into an even greater demon to devour all the sorrow and forge ahead.
Kambara Shuichi wasn't unaware of what he would face after killing the Living Doll.
Rather than being a bastard who sacrificed his daughter to some so-called god, he would rather be a warrior, drawing his sword and facing death with courage.
Every man has something he can't back down from, right?
It could be a glass of wine, a cigarette, a photograph, or even just a sentence.
For Kambara Shuichi, that thing was his daughter.
Any entity that seeks to harm his daughter, whether it be a treasure guarded by his ancestors or a so-called god, must first step over the corpse of Kambara Shuichi.