Never did Baishi Shū expect that he would have to reel in the net so fast.
He had been prepared to stay up late for several days straight, yet he did not expect that the yokai would show itself on the very first night.
‘Did it never cross its mind that somebody might keep watch on the apartment? This yokai doesn’t seem too bright to me…’ Baishi Shū laughed.
With his Divine Eye activated, although Morishita Akiko’s house was several kilometers away, it seemed as if it was happening right in front of him. In a split second, he “saw” the appearance, body structure, and the density of its yokai power.
This was a yokai. It had a head with four faces facing four different directions. Each face had a different expression: happy, angry, sad, and fear. At the same time, aside from its sharp claws, its body didn’t look any different from a normal human. It was even wearing a well-pressed suit, holding a phone and wallet like a normal person.
Baishi Shū seized the chance and looked into its body. Unlike Morishita Akiko, there was no soul orb in its body. This was not a human-turned yokai, but a yokai born through the natural way.
‘This is the yokai who orchestrated the entire incident? A yokai with four faces? But why does it seem to me that this yokai isn’t capable of working out a plan of this scale…”
Baishi Shū did not go to Morishita Akiko’s apartment to meet the four-faces yokai. It was because he noticed that each of the faces had its own personality. Every face was capable of thinking independently, and although they shared one body, their minds were not connected. To keep themselves on the same page, they had to open their mouths and talk.
He knew this because, from the first time Baishi Shū”saw” it, the four-faced yokai had been blabbering nonstop.
‘It looks even dumber now,’ Baishi Shū was quite delighted. After all, it was easy to get information from a chatty yokai.
He closed the book in his hand and listened intently to the four-faced yokai’s conversation. Although they were talking rather fast, he still succeeded in deciphering the content of their conversation.
“…Cautious? I guess the monk is already asleep.”
“…Even Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken are not capable of monitoring over such a long distance…”
“… Better safe than sorry. That monk is too terrifying…”
‘Hmm? Are they talking about me?’ Baishi Shū frowned, feeling something wasn’t right.
The one who exorcised Morishita Akiko was him. The distance between Reimei Temple and her house was several kilometers away. Towards the end of their conversation, he even overheard that they said something like he had defeated Warui-otoko and also Akachan…
Baishi Shū recalled the boy Hare-no-yurei at the roadside as well as the girl Hare-no-yurei who wreaked havoc in Kondo Private Junior High School…
‘Yep. They are definitely talking about me.’
The creases on his forehead deepened.
‘This yokai is monitoring me as well? They know my location and know that I am in the temple right now, that’s why they showed themselves without any scruples?’
However, it appeared to him that whatever thing they used to monitor him, it could not pinpoint his location. They could only roughly know his location, otherwise, they would not be using the time to deduce that he was sleeping.
“So what did they use to monitor me?”
He did not expect to actually be moving under his enemy’s nose this whole time. In this way, he would not be able to catch them even if he saw them. The reason was that the moment they detected his movement, the fear face would notify the other faces and all of them would immediately flee.
‘Cloth? Or my belongings?’ He meticulously checked through all the things he carried on him, yet he could not find any markings or anything that were marked by yokai power. On second thought, he would have realized it if there was such kind of marking on him. Then, how did the four-faces yokai sense his location?
Baishi Shū had no idea as well.
Just when he was lost in his own thoughts, he glimpsed his handphone and an idea popped up.
‘Could it be… they used the phone to locate me…?’
After several bouts of remuneration, he decided to do a small experiment. With his Divine Eye activated, he placed his handphone on the futon and then exited the temple. He walked along the cobblestone pathway and out of Yoyogi Park.
He walked towards the four-faced yokai’s direction, reckoning that they should be able to sense his movement if they had extrasensory perception.
However, the four-faced yokai did not give any response. They continued to stay in Morishita Akiko’s apartment and were seemingly collecting something with their yokai power. This might be the reason they put a soul orb into a human body, turning a human into a yokai. This was also the reason why they took the risk of being caught and appeared in Morishita Akiko’s house.
Looking at the four-faced yokai who ran around the apartment like a busy bee, he fell silent.
He returned to the temple, picked up his phone, and tried again.
This time, when he arrived at the edge of Yoyogi Park, something in the four-faced yokai’s pocket vibrated.
Their phone rang. The four-faces yokai picked up the phone and the smiley face said jovially, “Yes? anything?”
If he ignored the room and the four grotesque faces, they seemed just like an ordinary man in a suit picking up a phone. He could even see that the caller ID on the screen of their phone was “Technician”.
‘Hmm??!’
He tried to read the yokai’s lips, and suddenly the smiley face turned and the fearful face appeared.
“What? The monk is coming here? Did we get busted?”
“What the??? He can sense us from several kilometers away? Is he still a human?”
“Abort mission! Let’s get going, guys!”
With that, the four-faced yokai hung up the phone. With a few quick steps, they went through the wall and started running.
However, they did not get rid of Baishi Shu. The moment he saw them, he had marked them down. No matter where they went or how good their technique was in erasing their traces, he would be able to find them with his Divine Eye.
On the other side, Baishi Shū remained silent, looking somewhat startled. Slowly, he walked back to the Reimei Temple and returned to his seat on the futon. He took out his phone and sank deep into thought.
At the same time, the four-faced yokai received another phone call.
“What? The monk has returned to the temple?”
“So it was a false alarm? Is he sleepwalking or what? This is so scary…”
“All of us almost turned into Cowardice!”
“Well, on second thought, although that monk is powerful, do you guys think he is more powerful than those kami in the Meiji Shrine? How is there any possibility he could do something that not even the two kami could do…”
“Well, let’s return to finish the job. Otherwise, the big boss will eat us if we fail to get anything…”
With that, the four-faces yokai slipped back to Morishita Akiko’s apartment again.
After a short while, Baishi Shū muttered, “The yokai nowadays… are so modern?”