Recently, Baishi Shū was very sensitive towards the word “yokai”.
The moment he heard that Inspector Aoki had come across a yokai at Nakano City’s police station, he rushed to the nearest monorail station and headed there right away.
He did not ride his cherished Hakuryuu, as he still had a hard time controlling his strength. What if he could not control his strength and broke his bike? That was the last thing he would want to happen.
In the monorail, Baishi Shū sank deep into his thoughts.
‘Will it be the soul orb again?’
After figuring out the existence and uses of the soul orb, he knew that there must be someone pulling the strings behind everything that had happened recently.
He didn’t know what the guy wanted to achieve. He just roamed about Tokyo, looking for a target overwhelmed by hatred and resentment and turned them into a yokai by using the soul orb.
Since this was something related to Reimei Temple, as a man who vowed to inherit and expand upon the temple, Baishi Shū felt that he had a responsibility to get to the bottom of it all.
What if somebody ferreted out the identity of the person behind the scene and found out the history behind Reimei Temple? What if people pointed fingers at Reimei Temple?
After all, regardless of where and how the person got the soul orb, if it were not for Tong Ling, the old abbot’s second brother, who had turned into a yokai, the soul orb would never have been made. People never would have died if it weren’t for this evil object.
Although it wasn’t very fair to Reimei Temple, as Reimei Temple was also a victim, oftentimes people who had lost a beloved family member and internet trolls who liked to sling mud around wouldn’t really care. They wouldn’t bother to dig out the truth, all they wanted was a target for them to unleash their anger on.
If that really happened, Baishi Shū wondered how he was meant to comfort people that had lost their loved ones.
Would he be able to keep the name of Reimei Temple? He didn’t know.
‘What if I perform the meditation spell on those internet trolls across the air? I can calm down their mind and cleanse them of their hatred…’
Unfortunately, he had not yet discovered a way to send his spiritual power across the electric conductor. As such, he must act with haste to find the person behind everything and send him to Buddha to pay for his sins.
The monorail was fast, just a little pricey.
He didn’t run after he got down from the monorail, walking slowly because he didn’t want to ram into anybody.
Not long after, he arrived in front of Nakano City’s police station and saw Inspector Aoki from afar.
Compared to two days before, he noticed that Inspector Aoki’s countenance was pale. There were two deep, dark circles around his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept for days.
‘Is it because of the clairvoyance talisman?’ He thought.
Initially, he thought only his mantra, sutra, and spiritual power had an extended effect. Little did he expect that even the duration of the talisman he crafted would be boosted as well. It seemed to him that the “cheat code” he gained for coming to this world seemed a little… off the charts.
But that again, it was also due to the prolonged effect of the clairvoyance talisman that Inspector Aoki could notice the strangeness present in the police station.
Fate was truly magical.
“Master Baishi!” Inspector Aoki’s heart calmed down when he saw the monk’s robe and his partially shaved head.
‘The master has come!’
All ghosts and evil spirits would be exposed before Master Baishi. His very existence was enough to drive away the darkness in his heart. All his fatigue, which had been building up for the last two days, left him and he felt refreshed like never before.
Looking at the warm smile on that young face, Inspector Aoki almost cried.
“Inspector Aoki, I heard that you saw a yokai in the police station?” Baishi Shū asked with a smile.
“Yes. It is a girl. She is now in the interrogation room. I haven’t seen her come out yet…” Inspector Aoki replied instantly.
“Every inspector in the police station could see her, but all of them treated her like a normal little girl. I’m the only one who sees through her true color, thanks to your clairvoyance talisman. That’s the reason why I know she’s not an evil spirit but a yokai!”
“Well, you are not wrong, but under certain circumstances, some evil spirits can manifest themselves in front of normal people as well…” Baishi Shū added as he nodded.
However, that was not the main point.
Following Inspector Aoki, he walked into the police station.
The moment he stepped into the building, Baishi Shū realized something was terribly wrong.
It was quiet.
There was no sound in the police station. He couldn’t hear any footsteps nor could he see any inspector on duty. It seemed as if everybody had left this building and the only sound that could be heard was the cacophony of horns blaring and people rushing outside.
This was certainly not an illusion. Baishi Shū was certain of it because his Divine Eye could see through it if it was.
Everything that happened right now was real.
As Inspector Aoki gazed around, he said, feeling a faint chill crawling up his spine, “It wasn’t like this when I went out, Master Baishi. There were a lot of inspectors on duty and there were some citizens… Could it be that they already…”
The stories about yokai that he heard as a child slowly resurfaced in his mind, one after another.
‘Could it be that all of them had been eaten by that yokai? If I did not leave the police station just now, would I have disappeared as well?’
“Please forgive me,” Baishi Shū said, a solemn expression dawning over his face.
The things that happened here had far exceeded his expectations. He did not hesitate anymore and activated his Divine Eye at full strength. He took a good look at the inner and outer structure of the police station, and very soon, he found out where those inspectors and citizens had gone to.
“They are all inside the wall. Somebody must have created a pocket in the wall and thrown them in. They did not fuse with the concrete, which is lucky. Otherwise, things would have been even trickier. All of them are passed out, but they’re still alive.”
“So what should we do?” Inspector Aoki asked urgently.
‘All the people are inside the wall? Holy sh*t, this is worse than death. If no one ever found out, they would have been trapped in the wall forever! They would slowly die due to suffocation and eventually become part of the building…’
Goosebumps erupted across Inspector Aoki’s skin as he imagined the scene.
Then he suddenly remembered something Inspector Takeru told him about the girl.
“Her father, her mother, and her little brother, all of her family members, have gone missing… When we rushed to her home, we didn’t find anything…”
‘That yokai… that little girl’s parents and her little brother… Could it be that they were in the house all along? When the police arrived, they were inside the wall looking at them? What should we do now? All of the police and citizens are still alive, but it is too late to call for reinforcement. There is no air inside the wall. By the time the reinforcements arrive, they would have died due to suffocation!’
“Inspector Aoki, destroying the police station to save people wouldn’t be considered a crime, right?” Suddenly, Baishi Shu’s voice rang out and snapped Inspector Aoki out of his thoughts.
‘Is that important right now?’
In the next second, he heard a loud thud, as if someone was hitting the wall with a sledgehammer. Turning his head, Inspector Aoki saw that Baishi Shū was holding the sleeve of his robe. There was rubble scattered around his legs and there was a huge hole in front of him. He stretched his arms into the hole and pulled out an unconscious inspector.
‘What???’
Inspector Aoki was frightened.