Ancient Kahona folktale "the three ONI"
long ago, there were three powerful ONI who loved to create mischief and suffering. They loved doing this so much that they wandered the land in search of villages in which they could create chaos with their incredible power. This continued for many years until one day, when they were leaving a ruined village, they heard weeping. When they went to see who was the cause of this noise they met a small child And they asked him why he wept so bitterly his reply was this
"you three ONI have destroyed my village and killed my parents, and now you will surely kill me too, have I any reason not to cry?"
The ONI were taken aback, they did not realize the pain that they had been causing innocent people to feel. The three ONI said to themselfs
"to cause such pain is horrible, we must devote ourselves to fixing what we have broken and destroyed" and so for the next year they did nothing but fix what they had broken and re-create what they had destroyed. But after a while this became boring, and the ONI returned to their destructive ways. Once again they came upon the village of the boy, but now he had grown and was an old man. When the ONI came he was angry and shouted at them
"you ONI have not changed at all! You still destroy and murder! You are evil!" the oni once again saw that what they were doing was bad, and as an excuse they said to the old man
"we cannot help our nature, our very chakra is laden with evil intentions and it urges us to destroy" the old man looked back at them and said
"if you get rid of your evil chakra you will not have such destructive urges, it would be easy for ONI such as you"
the three ONI saw that there was truth in his words, and they all decided to follow his advice. Each of the three ONI divided their evil chakra into three parts and sealed each part into an animal and they became good natured and peaceful. But the nine animals filled with evil chakra became evil. They grew tails according to the order in which they were created and the evil chakra that resided within them. Because of this they came to be known as the "tailed beasts" and the destruction they caused was even greater than the destruction caused by the ONI. The good natured ONI couldn't stand to see the destruction that their chakra had caused. So they decided to give away their senses.
The first ONI gave away his hearing so that he could not hear the evil his chakra had caused. The man who had received the oni's hearing gained the power to hear everything that happened for miles and miles around, from the loudest bang to the smallest sneeze of a child, in addition he gained the ability to hear the difference between a lie and a truth.
The second ONI gave away his vison so that he could not see the evil his chakra had caused. He gave his vision to a blind man. The blind man gained the ability to see for miles in all directions as well as the ability to see through solid objects. He could even see chakra.
The third ONI gave away his voice so that he could not speak of the evil that his chakra had caused. The man who had received the ONI's voice gained the ability to speak directly to a person's soul as well as the ability to speak to a person miles away without anyone else hearing. The three ONI went a long way away and sat on a mountain. They became very famous, and since then, anyone who had done an evil act that he wishes to forget will remember to speak no evil, hear no evil and see no evil.