Becoming A Monk In Tokyo - Chapter 41

Chapter 41: The Old Abbot Has Some Big News To Tell

Silence returned to Reimei Temple once again after the Takai family took their leave.

Wisps of smoke swirled from the incense burner into the air.

Since it was the weekend, even the construction workers were on their holidays. Right now, there was only Baishi Shū and the old abbot in the temple. Baishi Shū had already gotten used to this, so he did not feel lonely at all.

Sitting on the futon in front of the Buddha statue, he said to the old abbot, “Abbot, I’ll transfer 30 million yen to you. You can contact the construction team and have them come over to start building the kyōzō!”

“Amitabha.” The old abbot smiled and nodded at him.

Baishi Shū admired the old abbot’s unruffled attitude when facing a substantial amount of money. In his perspective, this was how a true holy monk should be. He aimed to become like the old abbot one day, and he was working very hard towards it.

Baishi Shū had never seen the old abbot make any gaffes. He was always so collected, and he would only give him a faint reaction like a smile or a nod at the most.

Be that as it may, he knew the old abbot cared for him a lot.

‘Oh yeah! I almost forgot.’

Today was his first time coming across a yokai, so he could not wait to share the experience with the old abbot any longer.

After a short rumination, he said, “Abbot, why would a human turn into a yokai?”

The question left the old abbot stunned. It took him a few seconds before he raised his head from his phone and looked at Baishi Shu. There was a series of emotions that were subtle and conflicting flowing behind his gaze.

“Why would you ask this question, Shinsei?”

“Oh, when I was helping Mr. Ikeda to exorcise the evil spirit that killed his son, I found out that it wasn’t an evil spirit but a human turned yokai,” answered Baishi Shū frankly. “That’s why I wondered how a human gets turned into a…yokai.”

“So, are you saying that you just exorcised a yokai today? And the yokai was previously…?” the old abbot asked inquisitively.

“Yes, her name is Ayumi. She was dumped by her boyfriend many times, and she had accumulated so much resentment and hatred that she turned into a yokai in the end. It fits with the description in legends about how a human transforms into a yokai. Even though I have read through all the scriptures and records, I still don’t get it. No matter if it is from the physiological aspect or physical aspect, yokai and humans are two different entities. How are there any possibilities that a simple fluctuation in mood would cause a human to transform into a yokai? I’m sure there’s something that I don’t know…” Baishi Shū poured out everything in his mind. His eyes were shone with eagerness as he stared intently at the old abbot, hoping that he could answer his doubts.

However, the old abbot could not give him an answer. “I’m sorry, Shinsei. I don’t know the answer as well. The formation of yokai has always been a myth since ancient times. A lot of people have been trying to find a reasonable explanation, but unfortunately, none of them could do it.”

‘Well, I guess it is up to me again, then,’ Baishi Shū said in his heart.

Truth to be told, he was not very disappointed. After all, even a neoteric person like him, who had a plethora of information at his fingertips, was not able to come up with an answer, let alone those people in ancient times who had limited amounts of resources.

Therefore, he had decided to put more effort into his studies and strive to become the one who could answer the question. He was going to solve all the unsolved mysteries in the world and include the answer into the children’s book “I Wonder Why” so that people in the future could read about it.

After he made up his mind, he put the matter away as he had something else to ask the old abbot.

“Oh yeah, Abbot, when I was exorcising Ayumi, a bead that looked like a glass bead fell out of her body. It had a shiny surface, and I noticed some dark energy inside. Is it a yokai’s essence core? But I saw similar beads from the Hare-no-yurei I exorcised that day. Even though the color is different, I’m pretty confident that they are the same thing.”

Smack!

The old abbot’s phone dropped to the ground. Surprise was written all over his face as he held Baishi Shu’s gaze and boomed, “What did you say?!”

Baishi Shū was equally as stunned as the old abbot. This was his first time seeing him lose his cool. It now occurred to him that whatever he saw, it must be very important.

As such, he repeated what he saw. It was just that he could not give more specific details as all he had was a quick peek. No matter if it was Ayumi or Hare-no-yurei, the bead had instantly disintegrated the moment it touched the ground.

The silver lining was that the old abbot did not require any more details. As he rose to his feet, Baishi Shū had no idea why but he felt like the old abbot seemingly had suddenly aged. He looked very exhausted as if something was wearing him down.

Although the abbot was old, he was physically healthy and had a young heart. To add to that, he was even more modern than Baishi Shu, who was a young man. However, now, it seemed that his heart had grown old.

After walking two steps forward, the old abbot dropped to his knees and sprawled prostrate in front of the Buddha statue for a few minutes straight. Then, he opened a hidden locker underneath the Buddha statue and pulled out a box made of jade.

‘There’s a hidden locker under the statue?’ Baishi Shū was surprised.

Although he had the Divine Eye, he would never take advantage of his ability to observe the Buddha statue as the very act was considered disrespectful. That was the reason he had no idea there was a hidden locker there.

With the jade box in his hand, the old abbot went back and sat down on the futon. He put it in front of Baishi Shū and opened it, bringing the object within into the light.

“Shinsei, are the beads you saw the same as this one?”

The interior of the jade box was covered in flannel. At the center of the flannel sat a bead that was beautifully wrought. The bead exhibited a bronze-red color, and it was similar to those beads that Baishi Shū had seen from Ayumi and Hare-no-yurei.

He had a hunch that the old abbot was going to disclose something big to him.

“Yes, Abbot.”

Upon hearing his answer, the old abbot closed the box. His expression was calm as he held Baishi Shu’s gaze.

“This bead is called the soul orb. It is an evil thing made from human souls. You want to know how a human turns into a yokai, don’t you? No one has been able to give a standard answer to this question, but there’s a man… or I should say, there’s a yokai whose existence is the closest to the answer. It crafts the soul orb using the human’s soul. After that, it gives the orb to those around him with malicious thoughts and turns them into yokai.”

“An orb that uses the human’s soul as a basic ingredient? Transforming a human being into a yokai?”

The Hare-no-yurei flitted across his mind. The three beads in her hand must have been the souls of the three female students that died that year while the bead inside Ayumi’s body was probably the soul of Ikeda Shinn’s girlfriend.

Baishi Shū was relieved that he had also crossed those souls over when exorcising the Hare-no-yurei and Ayumi.

‘Amitabha…’

However, whose soul was inside the jade box? Also, why did the old abbot keep it in the jade box and put it underneath the Buddha statue?

As if he read his mind, the old abbot said, “The soul inside this soul orb is my father. He is the former abbot of Reimei Temple. His name is Baishi Longye, and his Dharma name is Puzi. I know you are very curious about the past of Reimei Temple, but I’ve never told you anything. This is because it isn’t a very nice history, and it should be buried forever… However, since you’ve met the same thing I came across when I was younger, I guess it is about time I tell you the background of Reimei Temple…”