Asada Senna's approach proved to be effective.
Mr. Nakano had forgone his desire to join them in the exorcism tonight. After Asada Senna and Baishi Shū confirmed the identity of the evil spirit and the time they'd carry out the exorcism, he excused himself and left the two professionals to do their work.
It was the wisest choice!
Baishi Shū understood something not long after he came to this world: ordinary humans were vulnerable. They were powerless against evil spirits. They couldn't see them, touch them, or protect themselves against them should they bumped into one.
Even if he had been by Mr. Nakano's side at all times, he could not entirely shield him from the bad effects of the Yin energy and the resentment emanating from the human-faced spirit. The degree of the effect varied from person to person. A man with a stronger spirit might just get haunted by nightmares for several days, while a weaker man would be stricken with a serious illness and confined to bed for an unknown period of time.
The Yin energy and resentment were formless and intangible, so even if Baishi Shū wanted to do something, his hands would be tied. If something bad really happened and Mr. Nakano was tainted by the Yin energy and resentment, there would be nothing he could do. He couldn't use the Buddha Blessing Palm on him, which is what he always did with the rest of evil spirits.
The Buddha Blessing Palm was only effective towards Yin energy and resentment, not meant to have an effect on living humans. However, that was just his speculation. He had never tried using the skill on anybody, so he truly didn't know how it would turn out. What if it was too effective and he accidentally sent Mr. Nakano to the Western Paradise? That would be catastrophic.
Hence, to save him some trouble, it was best to keep Mr. Nakano out of this. With that thought in mind, Baishi Shū gave Asada Senna a thumbs up for her wonderful work.
"Baishi-san, tonight…"
"Tonight, I will stay here to rest and recite scripture. If you have other things to do, you can go ahead. I will contact you if something comes up," Baishi Shū said as he offered her an amicable grin.
Then, without waiting for Asada Senna's reply, he walked around and found himself a nice spot. After he sat down, he closed his eyes and went into training mode. It seemed that anywhere and everywhere could be his training spot, as long as he was left alone.
Looking at Baishi Shu's smooth and spontaneous movements, Asada Senna was at a loss for words.
'Hmph! Is it that hard to go out with me for once? You are not going to get a girlfriend if you continue like this, you know?'
Asada Senna pouted.
Due to her charming face and likable disposition, she was treated like a princess at the Yotsuya Suga Shrine. She was more talented than her peers in spiritual power training and she was well-liked by kami-sama and the elders of the shrine, not to mention the fact that she could handle assignments from the police department on her own from a young age. However, Baishi Shū didn't seem to appreciate these positive qualities and always gave her the cold shoulder.
Well, she didn't have special feelings of any kind for Baishi Shu. She just couldn't let go of the fact that Baishi Shū kept rejecting her invitation to go out with her.
'Does he hate me that much?'
Yes, Asada Senna felt that Baishi Shū disliked her. She got that feeling not because he turned down her invitation many times, but because his thoughts were often written all over his face.
Every time she invited him to go out with her, he would display that annoying expression, which said, "You are so troublesome. This is boring, can you please stop pestering me? I want to study and train." Asada Senna felt defeated and she almost gave up on him. If it weren't for his great spiritual power and her curiosity about the history of Reimei Temple, she would've cut ties with him long ago.
"Hmph!"
Asada Sena flung herself on the chair next to Baishi Shu.
'You want to study? Okay, fine! You know what? Screw it! Let's train together! I don't want to go shopping anymore!'
...
Three hours passed by in the blink of an eye. After Baishi Shū finished his daily quota of scripture reading, he gained 6 points of spiritual power. Then, just when he was about to start on his experiment in his appendix, he saw Asada Senna.
'Is she… training as well?'
Unbeknownst to Asada Senna, she had finally gotten Baishi Shu's attention. His gaze was fixed intently on her face, as this was his first time witnessing a miko training.
Perhaps because they were from two different religions, the way Asano Senna trained was not the same as his method. Unlike him, who needed to chant the Diamond Sutra to raise one point of spiritual power, she knelt on the floor with her back fully upright and recited some sort of Shintoism eulogy.
He could not quite understand the content of her mumbling, something about praising the virtues and the glory of Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the great god of Japan, which he found quite flat and insipid.
Presumably, this was the method of cultivation for the Shinto priests and priestesses. Their power came from the deity they enshrined and their daily training was to sing praises to the said deity. Baishi Shū wondered how much spiritual power she would gain from extolling the eulogy once. How many points of spiritual power would it be according to his calculation method? He would probably be able to find out if he used the Divine Eye to observe the changes in spiritual power within Asada Senna.
Nevertheless, he was very principled. He would not look into something that he should not see, preferring to control his curiosity than to peek into someone else's body.
'Amitabha! I have once again defeated my own demon. Besides, Miko Asada is behaving very well today. She did not goof around but concentrated on her own training instead. Hmm, this is a good sign. Looks like I have put yet another lost soul onto the right path.'
Baishi Shū nodded and smiled. After that, he peeled his eyes away from Asada Senna and focused on his appendix.
...
Body Cultivation Progress: 31%
11:00 p.m., Daemon Animation Studio
As the night grew darker, the Yin energy came alive. At a rift that connected both Yin and Yang realms, a dog head with human facial features and long hair materialized. It stepped across the rift and came into the realm of the living.
It was a horrible existence. Its expression was contorted and locked in perpetual pain. It looked like a dog but had a carpet of long hair on its back. Through the gaps between the hair, one could see that its face was no different from that of a human but its body was that of a dog. However, on the extremities of its four legs were not the paws of a dog but the palms of a human. Like a chimera, it was distorted and monstrous, a wretched creature too gruesome to be seen.
The moment the creature leaped into the realm of the living, all the lights in Daemon Animation Studio suddenly flickered, as if they were affected by a mysterious force. Be that as it may, everything seemed perfectly normal if one was looking in from the outside. Acting as a barrier, the wall had split the interior and exterior of the building into two different worlds.
Suddenly, a series of footfalls rang out from the corridor. Something was running barefoot. However, incongruously, there were other sounds in the footsteps. What was it?
"Oh, shoot! Baishi-san, I forgot to do my preparation!" Asada Senna shouted nervously.
In response, Baishi Shū gave her a confused look.
'She still needs to do preparation before starting the exorcism?'
Both of them felt a tingle the moment the human-faced spirit showed up. They recovered from their training and Asada Senna panicked.
"I am not the same as you! You have strong spiritual power and you can exorcise an evil spirit in one hit, but I can't! To fight the evil spirit, I have to do some preparations first, like laying out charms and traps to restrict the evil spirit's movement and ability so that I can exorcise it more easily!"
It was only then that Baishi Shū remembered the traps and charms she had used when they were fighting the Onryo last time. Since both of them were from different religions, their fighting style was different as well.
"How about this? I will stall the human-faced spirit to buy you some time and you can take the opportunity to do your preparation. Does that sound good?" Baishi Shū proposed earnestly.
"Well, now that I think about it, I guess the preparation might not be very helpful in our current situation anyway. Let's just go like this," Asada Senna replied firmly.
'He will help me by stalling for time? No thanks! I am afraid that before I even finish my preparation, he will have already sent the human-faced spirit to the Western Paradise.'