Stimulated by the thought of having a new room to himself, Baishi Shū proposed checking out the scene to find out more about the situation.
Headmaster Takai had no objection to his suggestion. He got his daughter to lead Baishi Shū to the girls' dormitory at Kondo Private Junior High School.
Due to the alleged haunting that happened two days ago, all the resident students had moved out or taken leave to go back home. Even the dormitory staff took several days off. Right now, the girls' dormitory was empty.
'A boy, a girl, and a deserted spot with a possible demonic appearance… What a perfect setting!'
Marie Takai was trembling incessantly standing in front of the dormitory. However, she was trembling not with fear but with wild excitement.
She was now at an unmanned area where a spiritual event had taken place with the most famous and charming scholar-tyrant of Hibiya High School. Although the setting was not quite right, did that not sound like a date?
'This is the best!' she shouted inwardly.
She thought of jumping into his embrace by using her fear of ghosts as an excuse, inhaling his breath that was infused with the smell of sandalwood and being enveloped by his strong, warm arms. She would be able to see that impeccable face of his that could only be found in girls' comics by just raising her head. Then, he would whisper "don't worry, I'll protect you" into her ear with his soft, mellow voice…
When she thought of those scenes, Marie Takai melted completely like butter on a hot pan and her ears turned burning red.
In truth, she was not really scared despite facing a possible demonic treat. After all, it was daytime right now, not to mention that she had developed a certain level of immunity since she had seen and experienced a paranormal event before.
Nevertheless, those were not the main reasons.
The main reason was that she felt safe, protected, and secure with Baishi Shū beside her. Even if she would still bend down on the ground and put her head between her knees to scream at the top of her lungs when an evil spirit appeared, she believed those were purely involuntary actions.
As she could not stop her brain from fantasizing about the scene of her snuggling up in Baishi Shū's arms and walking into the gloomy building in front, her knees suddenly gave way and she fell towards him.
However, Baishi Shū took a step forward, and all Marie Takai found was air.
"Takai-san, I can proceed on my own from here, so you can go back first. I am afraid that you might not feel comfortable with what might happen later," Baishi Shū turned around and said carefully.
'Takai-san has experienced demonic occurrences twice, and she even got transferred from Kondo Private Junior High School to Hibiya High School because of this, so she must be very afraid of ghosts. I can't risk having her bring me somewhere she feels uncomfortable. Sigh, I'm really such a considerate monk.'
"Hmm!?" Marie Takai panicked. Wouldn't it be a waste to let go of such a good opportunity if she were to return now?
No, she could not let that happen.
"Baishi-san, I'm fine. I'm not scared!" she hastily said.
"From day one of the paranormal activity until now, only a handful of students have been affected. They are just a little bit jittery but fine otherwise, and nothing major has happened. Maybe… maybe, it's us who are just making a scene out of it. Maybe that ghost is a good-hearted ghost and bears no ill intentions towards the living. Besides, this incident is related to my father's job, so I must see it through until the end!" Marie Takai was so anxious that she prattled incoherently. She just wanted to let Baishi Shū know that she was fine, so she just rambled out everything that popped up in her mind.
Obviously, she was quite successful at convincing Baishi Shū.
Looking at the girl, Baishi Shū felt touched. 'What a filial daughter.'
The headmaster of a Japanese private high school was not the one who made all the calls. That would be the "chairman" and "president" behind the school. They were the founders of the school and they owned all the rights to speak and make decisions. Meanwhile, the headmaster was, in essence, just the administrator of the school.
In this case, apparently, if Headmaster Takai failed to solve the paranormal event effectively, then the chairman would think that he was incompetent and unfit to lead the school. At that point, Headmaster Takai would most likely be removed from his duty as the principal of Kondo Private Junior High School.
As such, he could understand why Marie Takai would take this matter so seriously and wanted to see it through until the end.
How could he bear to reject a daughter that cared so much about her father?
Buddhism laid heavy emphasis on filial piety after all.
Baishi Shū was moved by Marie Takai's love and devotion to her father, but at the same time, he did not want to put her in a difficult position. Therefore, he said kindly, "How about this? I'll study it from here. Both of us don't have to go in."
Marie Takai's face was full of questions.
Nevertheless, Baishi Shū was not surprised when he saw the mystified expression on Marie Takai's face. After all, not everyone knew about the Divine Eye.
What was the Divine Eye?
From Baishi Shū's perspective, the Divine Eye could bring everything to light. It could penetrate the wall between the Yin and Yang realms, and allow the wielder to detect evil spirits and any traces they left behind, as it could mute hallucinatory effects and expose the true form of demons.
Apart from that, it granted the wielder the ability to see through physical objects, which was an ability commonly known as X-ray vision, and also the ability of microscopic vision. With the Divine Eye, one could penetrate through the outer dermis layer of a man and see the bones and organs inside—even the cells—or see through what was happening on the other side of a physical substance.
If Baishi Shū was sitting on a bench looking at his palm, he might not be necessarily observing his palm print but studying a certain cell structure within his palm instead.
Then, last but not least, the wielder of the Divine Eye would have an unrestricted scope of vision. Even if one was looking ahead, he could see whatever was happening behind his head.
Consequently, Baishi Shū could see how Buddha knew everything in heaven above and the earth beneath. After all, he had achieved the Divine Eye, so it went without saying that Buddha had the Divine Eye too.
He wondered if the Buddha of this world would often sit under the tree and observe the stars and the moon, or squat beside the river and study the flow of water or the fishes before giving a startling statement when he was younger in ancient times.
Even though Baishi Shū had the Divine Eye, he rarely used it due to privacy issues. The X-ray vision was too aggressive. As a monk who always did good deeds, spoke good words, and had good thoughts, he did not take advantage of the Divine Eye and do as he pleased, but upheld the bottom line and only activated it when the time called for it.
Now was a valid example.
If it weren't because the dormitory was empty of students, he would not have used his Divine Eye.
As it turned out, nothing could escape the Divine Eye. It was now apparent to him that the girls' dormitory of Kondo Private Junior High School was built on a land full of Yin energy.
He was not saying that the land used to be a mass grave, a battlefield, or even a ruin. Even though those three locations were the habitual dwelling places of wandering ghosts, they had nothing to do with Yin energy. A land full of Yin energy, as its name suggests, was a land with extraordinarily high Yin energy. There were a lot of reasons which would lead to the creation of a land full of Yin energy, but most of them were related to feng shui and environmental terrain.
A normal person living in a land full of Yin energy would not experience anything other than suffering from poor sleeping quality. For those who had better health, they would not even sense anything. However, once an accident happened, then the chances of the deceased's soul being turned into an evil spirit would be increased greatly.
"Since it's built on a land full of Yin energy, it's no wonder that the students who play the pen fairy game would summon an evil spirit," Baishi Shū said sympathetically.
An incident such as the one in the girls' dormitory of Kondo Private Junior High School was pretty rare. Under normal circumstances, aside from having some psychological effects, those who played the pen fairy game would not encounter anything.
'Well, I guess this is what they used to say: never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you,' he thought inwardly.
Pulling himself back to reality, Baishi Shū continued to observe his surroundings. He looked into the building and saw a little girl wearing a white dress sitting on the bed in a room. She was humming a weird tone while playing with several beads in her hand.
This was obviously not right. Why would there be a little girl in an empty dormitory? It was very strange.
Baishi Shū angled his head up and looked skyward. It was 4.00 p.m. right now, and the sun was still hanging high in the sky, baking the ground with its heat.
"A Hare-no-yurei?" he murmured.