章 11: Asada Senna’s Video Has Gone Viral
編集者: EndlessFantasy Translation
By the time dinner rolled around, Baishi Shū was still in a hopeless tangle about how to reform a land of grudge.
Nevertheless, he did not feel defeated.
Reforming a land of grudge was not something that could be done overnight. For centuries, countless monks and shrine priests had tried their best looking hither and thither for a way to reach that goal but to little effect. Hence, Baishi Shū reckoned that he at least needed to study for a month before he could finally draw a conclusion.
Baishi Shū thought there was a lot of difference between him and the ancients. After all, the ancients did not have a good atmosphere as he did now. They had limited access to information, and they lacked places for them to carry out the experiment.
For many ancient monks and shrine priests, they might not be able to walk out of their acres of land in a lifetime, thus their vision was limited to only what they could see.
Compared to them, it was as if he was standing on the shoulders of giants. He had better resources, and even if he took a little longer—two months were the maximum—he was certain that he would be able to ameliorate a land of grudge into a blessed land much quicker than they could.
Today was the 5th of November. Autumn was coming to an end, and winter was already making its return. In another month, schools in Japan would close for winter vacation. Baishi Shū hoped that he could find a way to alter the land of grudge before winter vacation started. That way, he would be able to start his work during the holidays.
Placing down the collection of essays, Baishi Shū washed his hands and had dinner.
The old abbot was the cook of the night. The kitchen was behind the living quarter, a semi open-air hut that seemed like an afterthought.
Their dinner was a bowl of katsudon. It smelled and tasted so awesome that Baishi Shū almost devoured his own tongue. The old abbot's culinary skill was one of the best he had seen for both his lives. Were it not for the old abbot being too old, with his skill, Baishi Shū was confident that he could earn a fortune by part-timing as a chef.
In fact, according to the old abbot, he was an influential figure in those years, and he had left a ton of legends. He had actively participated in all sorts of occupations, ranging from the main chef of a first-rate restaurant, the top bartender of a famous bar, to the most successful male host. Even now, countless women and young girls still fawned over him.
Initially, Baishi Shū was dubious of the old abbot's anecdotes. After all, if all of it were true, then the old abbot would definitely be making a lot more money than he was right now. Reimei Temple should be in better condition. People would have come to pay homage to the Buddha from time to time, and the Buddha statue would not be left in a dilapidated state. Their kitchen would have a roof, and they would not have to starve and look at the sky while waiting for the rain to stop.
However, the old abbot did not seem to be bragging at all. In his memory, the old abbot was very charismatic. Even though he was already a middle-aged man at that time, he always had a radiant smile on his face, not to mention how skillful he was in virtually everything.
In Baishi Shū's heart, the old abbot was as mysterious as Reimei Temple.
After he cleaned up the table and washed all the plates and cutlery, he returned, only to find the old abbot playing with his phone in front of Buddha.
It was not that the old abbot was not respecting Buddha, but that the temple was so small and the spot in front of the Buddha statue was the only open space they had.
As if he sensed Baishi Shū, the old abbot peeled his eyes away from the phone and hollered out smilingly at Baishi Shū, "Shinsei, come over here. Is this the miko that was with you last night? She is pretty cute."
"Hmm?" Dumbfounded, Baishi Shū walked over to the old abbot's side. He cast his eyes to the phone and saw a video. The video was showing a familiar scene. It had low-key lightning with an eerie soundtrack that served as the background music.
Asada Senna, who donned her miko attire, squatted in front of the camera. There was a grin on her face as she said into the camera, "Our objective is to eliminate the evil spirit, so we are going to lure it out now. First, let's light up the backflow incense…"
After that, she yanked her arm up and threw an amulet into the backflow incense to light it up. Then, the many-hues effect that Baishi Shū saw yesterday night appeared once more.
Her action was fluid, and the effect was beautiful. As for the power, Baishi Shū supposed that was not the amulet's fault.
A blanket of "666666" bullet-screen comments from the viewers flashed across the video.
Baishi Shū finally saw the light right now. Asada Senna had apparently edited the footage that he recorded yesterday night and uploaded it onto a video site.
'How can this kind of video even get through the website's review policy? Won't the shrine do something? Do they not have rules like keeping their job and the spirit a secret from the ordinary people?'
However, considering the fact that even though the police were all normal people and the shrine still worked with them on paranormal cases, it dawned on him that perhaps there was no rule such as "the magical world could not be known by muggles" in this world.
As long as they wanted, everyone could easily get information about spirits and ghosts online. They could even find documentation about spirits appearing in front of the living! Baishi Shū once again felt how different this world was compared to his previous world, no matter if it was from the aspect of ideology or everything else.
When he looked at it from another angle, he realized that it was also because these kinds of things were readily available everywhere that there were so many followers of Shintoism and Buddhism in this world.
"Yeah, her name is Asada Senna, a miko assigned by the Yotsuya Suga Shrine to investigate the Onryo incident. I was the one who was recording. By the way, where did you get this video from, abbot?" Baishi Shū asked.
"YTB. The video was uploaded at noon, but it is in the top ten pick videos list. I guess it is going viral," the old abbot said smilingly.
His life was pretty simpler right now compared to when he was younger. His daily activities right now included sweeping the floor, reciting scriptures, and playing with his phone.
Baishi Shū's brows frowned. "The video has gone viral?"
'But it was not Asada Senna who gave the Onryo the last hit. It was me who exterminated the runaway Onryo with my Buddha Blessing Palm. By the way, did she cut me out of the video? What if she did not cut me out of the video? Argh! I just got half of her remuneration, I should have demanded my share from her for appearing in her video! How stupid I am!'
Baishi Shū immediately sat down on the rush cushion and pulled out his phone. As the old abbot said, he soon found the video.
The title of the video was "Curious about what a midnight exorcism looks like? Look no further and follow me!" The name of the publisher was "Indoorsy Asada Senna-san" with the avatar of a little fox.
'Indoorsy Asada Senna-san, huh? You don't seem to be so indoorsy when you were shopping yesterday night.'
Baishi Shū chastised Asada Senna's ID in his heart before proceeding to tap on the video.
The video had 20,000 views at this moment. He was not interested in the first half of the video since he already knew what happened. The real fun only started when the Onryō went berserk.
He felt it was quite dramatic when the Onryo shouted, "My home is gone!" before going on a total rampage. It was also at this moment that the bullet-screen comments from the viewers exploded. Different kinds of comments such "My home is gone!", "I don't want to be human anymore!""My lover has abandoned me!" flitted across the screen, and it looked as merry as crickets.
After that, the scene of Asada Senna backing away and shouting for help had elicited yet another bout of happy bullet-screen comments. Then, Baishi Shū appeared. He stood in front of Asada Senna and the viewers fell silent all of a sudden, as they knew the climax was coming.
All of them heard him say, "Time to hit the road, mister."
They saw him push his palm forward and a brilliant globe of light bloomed out. Just when all of the viewers held their breath, the video went still and greyed out, just like the classic ending of a well-known anime.
Then, a line of words appeared in the lower right corner.
"To be continued."
Apparently, this was to heighten the dramatic effect. The viewers already knew the ending, so all sorts of bullet-screen comments such as "You are already dead" written in Japanese words filled the screen.
After the transition, the video returned. Asada Senna appeared in front of the screen once more as she began explaining how thrilling the entire exorcism process was.
Baishi Shū was satisfied. Asada Senna gauged the boundary very well. At the very least, only his back was displayed. She did not add in the scene where he clapped his palms together and turned around to answer her question.
Unless it was someone who knew him very well, nobody would be able to recognize the monk that rushed out from behind the camera. Satisfied, he patted his head and turned his phone off.
Browsing through videos was fun, and it made him relive his previous life. However, the phone was the root of all evil and also known as the time stealer. He was fully aware that if he abandoned himself to video browsing, he would fall into a state where he would be oblivious of the time. Then, by the time he came to his senses, all time would have already been lost.
Baishi Shū had turned over a new leaf, and he now had excellent self-control.
'It is time for scripture chanting,' he told himself.
With that thought in mind, Baishi Shū closed his eyes and began chanting the "Diamond Sutra".
-- 贈り物
が届きました