When talking about experimenting, the things that came into Hoshino Riho’s mind were blood drawing, and hair, skin, and body tissue sampling.
Whether there had been a change in body and bone structure when a human was transformed into a yokai, it could be easily detected by doing some scans with a machine, just like a medical check-up.
However, things would be a little different if it was organ sampling. To get a sample from an inner organ, one’s body had to be cut open. Generally, a procedure like this required anesthesia, but Hoshino Riho could not be sure if anesthesia would have any effect on her yokai body. If it did not have any effect, then she had no choice but to bear through the entire operation while gritting her teeth.
It would be very painful, right?
Hoshino Riho was afraid of pain.
When she was still a little kid, whenever she tripped, her father would pick her up and comfort her with his gentle voice. Later, after her father had passed away and her mother had remarried, she did not have anybody to rely on. Nobody would pick her up from the ground and the gentle voice that comforted her was long gone. She could only learn to live with the pain.
Fraught with fear, she followed Baishi Shū to Reimei Temple.
Then, she realized that everything seemed different from her imagination.
In front of her was a simple temple, not the cold and thoroughly white laboratory that she had in mind. There were groups of workers behind the temple and everything seemed normal to her. The monk named Baishi Shū did not restrict her freedom. He just asked her not to go too far away, and then he sat down and began chanting the scripture in front of a Buddha statue.
Hoshino Riho could not understand the scripture very well, but the voice of the monk was soothing and had a melodic tune to it. As if the scripture had some kind of magic, she began to calm down. Those voices that kept mumbling in her ears faded away, bit by bit. The hatred and resentment in her heart gradually melted away, and very soon, a sense of peace she hadn’t felt for a long time returned.
She closed her eyes and listened to the monk’s palliative voice. It brought her back to the time when her father used to hold her in his arms and tell her the story of the prince and the princess with his gentle voice.
However, the monk did not chant the scripture for long. After two hours, he stopped and stood up from the futon.
Just when Hoshino Riho thought her time had come and Baishi Shū was going to cut her body open, he walked out of the temple and went into the forest. Then, as Hoshino Riho looked on in awe, he began doing exercises.
Push-ups, sit-ups, leggings, jogging…
After exercising for roughly 40 minutes, the monk returned to the temple, picked up a biology book, and began reading.
Sometimes he would fall into thought, while he would smile at other times. There was also a time where he stared at the book for a long time before nodding his head and flipping to the next page.
The morning went by peacefully.
Just as Hoshino Riho suspected that the monk had forgotten her, he walked to her and asked whether she wanted to have lunch with them or not. Then, he also asked her several weird questions such as:
“Did you consume any food after you turned into a yokai? Did you feel hunger?
Did you go to the toilet? Do you have to answer the call of nature?
How did you go through physical objects, such as the wall and the ground?
Would you get stuck, fused, or bounced out of the wall when your shifting-through-the-wall trick failed?
Do you need to sleep? And if you did not have enough sleep, would you feel tired?”
Then, after knowing that Hoshino Riho still needed to consume food, he had the old abbot in the temple to make her lunch.
‘This is so tasty!’ Hoshino almost bit her own tongue and nearly cried.
It was the most delicious food that she ever had. If the monk was not going to cut her open, she was willing to stay in the temple forever just to eat the food cooked by the old abbot.
Her wish had come true. The monk had seemingly forgotten about the experiment, as he only immersed himself in the book.
In the afternoon, the monk went out and then he came back with a tent. At night, the old abbot prepared yet another feast for her. After filling stomachs, the monk continued to chant scripture again.
It was monotonous and boring, but Hoshino Riho felt somewhat content.
This night, she had a good night’s sleep. She even dreamed about the time when she was small. The time when her father was still alive and her mother would still smile warmly at her.
In the dream, Hoshino Riho did not cry. Her tears had dried up a long time ago.
The next day, Wednesday.
Initially, Hoshino Riho figured that today would be the day the monk revealed himself. She thought he would open her body up, but she was wrong. Like always, he woke up at four in the morning and began chanting scripture.
After two hours, he went to the forest and started exercising. Then, he returned to the temple and started to read his book again until lunchtime.
‘What kind of blissful life is this?!’
Although she was looking forward to this kind of lifestyle, she had her own plan for her future and her plan was definitely not achievable as a yokai. Truth be told, she did not have much faith in the monk’s promise about helping her become a human again. However, there was a voice in her mind telling her that she should trust the monk and that she should not give up, even if the chance was slim.
After all, if a human could turn into a yokai, the process should be reversible. Therefore, even though Hoshino Riho was scared, she was willing to become the subject of Baishi Shū’s experiment.
Be that as it may, ever since the monk brought her back to Reimei Temple, all they did was have some normal conversations. Most of the time, however, they just went on with their normal daily life.
Hoshino Riho could not hold herself back anymore and walked up to the monk. Before she could get near to him, Baishi Shū suddenly raised his head from his book and smiled at her, “Is there anything I can help you with, Hoshino-san? You seem troubled.”
“Erm… I am fine…” Hoshino Riho was tongue-tied. Her brain went blank for a second, and it took her several seconds before she could come around to her senses. After she recollected her mind, she took a deep breath and said, “Master Shinsei, did you not say that you wanted me to assist you in your experiment? But ever since I followed you back to Reimei Temple, you have been reading the book…”
“The experiment has already started.”
“What???”
Looking at Hoshino Riho’s perplexed face, Baishi Shū explained, “Well, maybe I never told you before, but I have already activated my Divine Eye. I can see through your body and do a microscopic observation of your body cells. I do not have to cut your body open, nor do I have to collect blood samples from you. Honestly, if it wasn’t because the soul orb in your body might affect your mind and compel you to do something terrible, I could study you from here, even if you are at your own house.”
What he did not say was that as long as he was able to pinpoint her, he could study her and the soul orb in her body anytime he wanted, even if she was on the other corner of the world.
Of course, this was just the first step. In a later stage, when he needed to use his spiritual power to stimulate her body cells or do an intensive study about her yokai power, he would have to do biological sampling and would need her cooperation at that time.
Hoshino Riho listened to Baishi Shū’s explanation, her face flushed pink. She covered her body with her arm and took a step back.
“Pervert!”
“What?” A confused expression dawned on Baishi Shū’s face.
He just did a micro examination of her body. All he saw was her bones and body cells. He did it with her consent, so he couldn’t fathom why she would call him a pervert.