Baishi Shū thought it was over. Never did he expect that by the time he finished the morning service the next day, the old abbot would call him over and show him some memes that was going around the internet.
The first one displayed his back. He was facing the Onryō with his arm outstretched and his skill activated. A line was pasted on top of the meme. It read "Time to hit the road, mister."
This one was nothing compared to the other memes.
Some of the Photoshop gurus had added their own mix of comical spins. In one of the memes, they Photoshopped the Onryō into a monster and Baishi Shū into a Kamen Rider with a line that read "F*cking monster, time to hit the road!"
Others were so creative that they connected several memes together and formed them into a comic strip. They made the runaway Onryō into Dio Brando and Baishi Shū into Kujo Jotaro.
Dio Brando: "I don't want to be human anymore!"
Kujo Jotaro: "Dio, time to hit the road."
"Nani?!"
The old abbot had saved a lot more of these memes. After he showed all of them to Baishi Shū, he then said with a grin, "Shinsei, you are going to become famous."
Baishi Shū was tongue-tied.
Life was always full of surprises. In his former incarnation, he was the one that would have created these memes. He never expected that after being reborn into this world, he would become the subject of internet memes. Having said that, since it did not cause him that much difficulty in life, he did not feel upset.
After all, these were memes. His face was not revealed and his back had been edited beyond recognition by all sorts of nonsensical effects. Even the old abbot found it hard to recognize him, let alone the people on the internet who knew nothing about him whatsoever.
In the end, Baishi Shū was not perturbed and he continued his life as always. He had something more important to do today. He had to instruct the workers, with whom he had made an appointment yesterday, to repair the Buddha statue and repaint the wall.
Even though their temple was small and dingy, so long as he had faith in it, Baishi Shū was certain that one day, Reimei Temple would become famous amongst the worshippers. All he had to do was refurbish the temple and draw publicity to it.
The total cost of refurbishment quoted by the worker was 630,000 yen. Most of the expenses were spent on the workers' wages and repairing the Buddha golden statue. This was what Baishi Shū earned money for, so he did not feel like spending more than half of his savings was agony.
While the workers were repainting the wall, he talked to their supervisor as he wanted to know how much it would cost to build a 40 square meter cottage. After ascertaining that the land rights belonged to Reimei Temple, the overseer gave his answer—1,300,000 yen.
The cost of living in Tokyo never ceased to amaze him. That amount of money was more than sufficient to build a two-story house in the countryside, yet in Tokyo, he could only build a 40 square meter cottage!
'It seems that I still need to earn more money.' Baishi Shū sighed inwardly.
Since he had decided to live as a monk after he graduated from school, he would certainly inherit Reimei Temple and become the abbot. Therefore, it was only natural for him to bring Reimei Temple to greater heights of development.
It seemed to him that he still had a long way to go.
"Baish-san!"
While he was immersed deeply in his own thoughts, Baishi Shū heard Asada Senna's voice. He thought he was hallucinating, but when he turned his head, he understood that that was not the case. Standing at the entrance to Reimei Temple was the miko from the Yotsuya Suga Shrine. She did not wear her usual miko attire but was dressed in a set of casual youthful clothing instead, appearing even more like a young, lively high-school teenage girl.
"What are you doing here, Miko Asada?" The question rolled off Baishi Shū's tongue before he even realized it.
'Doesn't she know that Buddhism and Shintoism aren't on good terms? How dare she set foot into Buddha's territory? Does she want to get punished?'
Of course, those were mere jokes. He wondered why Asada Senna would make her way from Arakawa City to Shibuya.
'Doesn't she need to worship her Kami-sama in the Yotsuya Suga Shrine? Why is she even here?'
"What's with that look on your face? Shouldn't you come over and welcome your friend for traveling the long way here? We fought a malicious spirit the night before. Isn't that enough for us to be friends yet?" Asada Senna said grumpily, "Do you know how hard it is to find this temple? I lost my way many times in the Yoyogi Forest!"
Baishi Shū tried to picture the scene. Indeed, looking for a cobblestone pathway that led to a temple deep inside the forest next to the enormous Meiji Shrine was not an easy task.
"That must be tiring," Baishi Shū said sympathetically.
"Right?!" Asada Senna nodded incessantly, seeming to recall the horror of losing her way in the forest. This was different from shopping. She would not feel tired even if she shopped for a whole day, yet she was quickly exhausted although she had only walked for a short while when she got lost.
After that, Asada Senna walked forward and Reimei Temple appeared in her vision.
The temple was so small that she did not see how there could be much of it. In the center of the forest was an old and dilapidated temple covered in a deep layer of fallen autumn leaves. It had no other decorations besides the two perpetually lit stone lanterns in front. Through the door, she could see that there was only one Buddha statue which was the most simple and common golden statue that appeared technically in all the temples. Then, in front of the Buddha sat an old abbot. With a mild and benevolent countenance, he was holding a chain of prayer beads in one of his hands while holding a phone with his other hand.
'Is this Reimei Temple?'
Right now, Asada Senna felt even more surprised than when she discovered that Reimei Temple was situated next to the Meiji Shrine. After all, Baishi Shū was a monk with a tremendously high spiritual power. Even though she did not know how powerful he was, at the very least, she was very certain that he was totally out of her league.
She never expected that a powerful monk like Baishi Shū would actually come from such a shabby temple, not to mention the fact that he was only a novitiate…
Asada Senna forced a smile on her face as she hesitantly said, "Baishi Shū-san, it felt really refreshing here."
Baishi Shū was not dense. He could see the embarrassment on Asada Senna's face and he knew that she was just trying not to be rude. With a smile, he said, "Any mountain can be famous with the presence of an immortal, and any river can be holy as long as there is a dragon. Miko, you shouldn't be obsessed with the characteristics of the ephemeral and ignore the depth that might lie within."
His words delivered a shocking blow that woke her up completely.
He had already attained such great heights in his career as a monk despite his tender age. Taking that into consideration, she could foresee that his achievements in the future would be extraordinary. Therefore, did it really matter if he came from a small temple? What's more, the very feat of being able to get a firm foothold in the bustling Tokyo City and claim a small patch of territory in the Yoyogi Forest, the administrative region of the Meiji Shrine, was commendable.
Even though it looked ridiculous and created a stark contrast against the flourishing Meiji Shrine, when Asada Senna thought about it, she felt that it was unusual for a small and dilapidated temple to be set up here. There ought to be some history behind this temple. Besides that, where did Reimei Temple get its land rights from?
With those thoughts in mind, the small and rickety Reimei Temple became different in her eyes.
'When I get back later, I should ask my seniors about the history behind Reimei Temple. Perhaps they might know something about it.'
"You are right, Baishi-san. I'm being too superficial," Asada Senna admitted her fault honestly.
Truth to be told, Baishi Shū did not really mind since even he himself felt that Reimei Temple was in a state which was too sorry to be seen. It would be rather unconvincing if Asada Senna saw the workers from the interior designer that were still painting the wall inside.
He cleared his throat and said, "So, what brings you here today, Miko Asada? Let's go inside and talk. I'll prepare some tea for you."
Asada Senna looked around but did not see any spot that allowed them to sit and enjoy some tea. She waved her hand to turn down the offer. "It's okay. Baishi-san, I came here today because I own you an apology."
"Apologize to me?" Baishi Shū was stunned.
"Yeah, about the video yesterday. I don't have your contact number, but I think that that footage was pretty interesting, so I cut you in without asking for your permission first…" Asada Senna said, her voice getting lower and lower with every word.
"Initially, I thought that nothing would happen since it was only your voice and back, but I never expected things to turn out this way to the extent that you are being made into memes… Even if I delete the video now, things won't change as the memes are everywhere on the internet… I am truly sorry about this."
Asada Senna gave him a 90-degree bow, and Baishi Shū saw her…
Ahem.
Baishi Shū did not expect her to come and apologize to him for this matter. Even though she was at fault for exposing him, he decided to forgive her due to her sincerity.
With that thought in mind, he laughed. "It's okay, Miko Asada, I forgive you. After all, the fact that you didn't show my face in the video indicates that you've already noticed the privacy issue. As for the memes, it could happen to anyone. I can only say that I'm too attractive, so even though I only showed my back, all the viewers can't help but fall for me. It isn't your fault at all."
Truth be told, Baishi Shū did not expect Asada Senna to personally come and apologize to him, what more with such sincerity. Even if he had the slightest trace of ill feelings against her, it had now disappeared. Besides that, it was not necessarily a bad thing for the video to go viral either.
After all, he did not make his appearance as a negative character but as a hero in the video. He had single-handedly eliminated an evil spirit that even a miko from a shrine could not handle. Was there any better way to showcase his supernatural powers?
If those viewers encountered any problems, he would be the first to appear in their minds. This was the effect of advertising.
Upon seeing that Baishi Shū was not angry with her, Asada Senna heaved out a long sigh of relief. She had mentally blamed herself when she saw the storm of memes on the internet that day.
After that, she turned around and pulled out a stack of yen, the same stack that she received yesterday, from her bag. Then, she placed it into his palm. "Even though you don't mind that, you did appear in my video. This is the other half of the remuneration I received yesterday. Take it as your appearance fee."
Looking at the stack of 250,000 yen in his hand, Baishi Shū suddenly went forward and grabbed Asada Senna's hand. Then, with an earnest countenance, he held her gaze and spoke to her in a soft voice, "Next time, if you plan to shoot something, please be sure to contact me."