Becoming A Monk In Tokyo - Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Baishi Shū Has A Heart Of Stone

Nakano City’s police station.

Inside the police station, Inspector Aoki was calling the hospital.

After he put his phone away, he looked at Baishi Shu, who was working very hard to punch through the wall and pull trapped people out. A question arose in his mind and he asked, “Is it too late for me to become a monk now?”

“You can become a monk at any time as long as you are devoted to Buddha. But if you really want to be a monk, I suggest you take an examination and get a certification first,” Baishi Shū replied honestly.

Hearing his honest answer, Inspector Aoki gave a halfhearted smile and scratched his head, “Haha, I was just joking, Master Baishi. You don’t have to be so serious. Besides, not every monk has the same level of spiritual power as you…”

Inspector Aoki did not want to be a monk. He was very satisfied with his current job and life. What’s more, even if he became a monk, there was no way he would be on the same level as Master Baishi.

After all, he had never seen a monk who could punch through the wall without hurting himself. Was that the legendary Vajraprani style or the adamantine body? Whatever it was, he would not feel surprised anymore after participating in so many paranormal activities, especially the Jorogumo event that had happened two days ago.

“You flatter me. I am still inexperienced and there are a lot of monks who are much stronger than me out there,” Baishi Shū said as he shook his head.

Plenty of things had happened recently. Not only had he befriended Asada Senna, but he also began to work with the police department on several paranormal investigations. Everybody seemed to be very surprised by the power he displayed and this made him realize that maybe he was not that weak after all.

Well, he was not wrong. After all, he had experienced enlightenment 150 times. Putting aside the knowledge he earned, for each enlightenment he would gain an average of 90 points of spiritual power. In the end, the total amount of spiritual power he had gained was 13,500 points.

Considering that he had gained so much spiritual power by just enlightenment, he would be too lousy if he could not be compared to other ordinary monks.

In Baishi Shu’s perspective, he should be considered an elite who was as prodigious as the old abbot’s brothers if put alongside his peers. However, he was certain that he was nowhere near the old abbot’s level. At the end of the day, the old abbot had chanted many Buddhist scriptures his entire life. And if by chanting scripture one time one could gain one point of spiritual power, his reservoir of spiritual power must be massive.

But there was one thing that Baishi Shū was very proud of himself—The Baishi Universal Deliverance.

Apparently, this kind of body cultivation method, which utilized an ancient mantra to strengthen one’s body cells, was something unheard of even for the old abbot. It was considered an original work of his.

Be that as it may, at this moment Baishi Shū still had no idea whether or not the Baishi Universal Deliverance would have any adverse effect on the user, so he could not teach it to other people yet. He had to confirm that it did not have any side effects. Only then would he write it down and turn it into scripture.

When he thought about how he would have a scripture with his name as the author, he could not stop smiling.

Just like those scholars in the past, who had worked out various theories and laid the foundation for modern society, as a person who loved to read, turning knowledge into words for future generations was probably the most fulfilling thing ever for him. It would give him even more sense of accomplishment than earning money or expanding the temple or his training.

Nevertheless, he knew that he still had a long way to go. The most important thing to do right now was to accumulate as much popularity as possible.

Very soon, Baishi Shū had pulled all the inspectors and citizens out of the wall. When the ambulance arrived, a doctor rushed into the police station and was met by a stunning scene.

It seemed as if a war had been waged here. The wall was riddled with many holes and the floor was littered with rubble and unconscious people that Baishi Shū had rescued, laying haphazardly on the floor.

The second he saw the condition these people were in, he laid aside all of his wonder and began saving the victims.

For a moment, sound returned to Nakano City’s police station. Everyone was busy rushing here and there, an organized mess.

“Master Baishi, where is the yokai?” Inspector Aoki asked, his heart finally grounded after his colleague was saved.

However, when he glanced across the door to the interrogation room, his heart was in his mouth again.

‘Sh*t! I was so busy saving the people that I forgot about the yokai!’

“It is not here anymore.”

Inspector Aoki had forgotten, but Baishi Shū did not. When he was scanning the police station with his Divine Eye, he found out it was gone. That was the reason he was able to put all his heart into saving those people.

Suffocation could lead to death. Even if they were saved, their brains might be damaged, so Baishi Shū could not leave them and go chase after the yokai. Now, since they were safe, it was time to get to the real business.

…

Although the yokai escaped, it was not gone for long. The traces it left behind as it moved would tell them where it was. Following that trail, Baishi Shū went out of the police station.

He hopped into Inspector Aoki’s car and they soon arrived in front of a Japanese residential building.

This kind of low-rise was very common in Nakano city. Most of them were occupied by the workers that worked in Nakano city and there was a huge possibility that the building in front was the yokai… no, the little girl’s house.

It did not know where it should run, so it ran back to its house. Baishi Shū immediately looked across the building with his Divine Eye. He let out a relieved sigh when he did not see anybody trapped in the wall, like those people in the police station.

He found the yokai in a unit on the third floor. It had a petite body, like that of a little girl, but its appearance was so abhorrent one would faint just by looking at it. Its body was covered in a thick shell and filled with many sharp quills that seemed to be able to deflect incoming attacks. Its face was blue and its teeth stuck far out from its mouth. Sharps claws were growing out from its fingers and toes, looking very deadly. Gone was the cute little girl.

‘Why did Akiko and Ayumi turn into two different kinds of yokai? Could it be that their yokai forms reflect their innermost thoughts?’

Baishi Shū could not tell.

He looked into the yokai’s body, and as expected, he saw a bead right in the center of its heart. It was another yokai turned by the soul orb.

When he was facing Ayumi last time, he did not notice the existence of the soul orb because he was too absorbed by the cell structure of a yokai.

After ascertaining this, Baishi Shū got down from the car. He went into the residential building, climbed the staircase, and arrived at the unit on the third floor.

The door was opened. Light was spilling out from inside, as if the yokai was waiting for him.

He appreciated the action, as he did not have to tear down a door again. He stepped into the unit and the first thing he saw was the living room. A family of three was sitting around the table, as if they were waiting for dinner to be served. It was just that the scene was a little gruesome.

The father was sitting in the main seat. His chest was completely hollowed out and his arms were gone. In comparison, the mother and little brother’s conditions were much better. Due to the cold weather, their appearance remained the same. All of them had painful expressions on their faces and it seemed to Baishi Shū that they must have gone through something terrible before they died.

“You’ve come,” Yokai Akiko said calmly when it saw Baishi Shu.

Compared to Ayumi, it was much calmer. However, the three corpses around the table showed that it was no better than Ayumi.

Since it took the initiative to talk, Baishi Shū nodded and replied, “I have come.”

“I know I ate daddy and killed mommy and little brother, so I will have to be punished. But, can you give me some time? There is something I want to know,” Yokai Akiko said.

Then, without giving Baishi Shū any time to respond, it continued, “I want to know where you were when I was beaten by daddy and mommy. Where were you when I was bullied by my friends in school? Where were you when I was crying on the toilet? Where were you when… when… I needed somebody?”

Baishi Shū walked towards Yokai Akiko as he listened to its questions. He put his palm on its forehead. When it finished speaking, a divine light flared out.

“Done? I don’t have an answer to all your questions, so please ask them to Buddha.”

The warm divine light cast away all the darkness. Yokai Akiko’s body began to disintegrate, the soul orb in its heart falling out and disappearing.

When the light faded away, everything returned to normal.

Standing in front of the three corpses, it took a long time before he finally closed his eyes and started chanting the Rebirth Mantra.