Chapter 29 - Akechi Temple Visit
Akechi Touma leisurely strolled through the stone paths of the Desire Temple, smiling, totally dragging his unwilling classmate, friend, and fellow Psychiker Toritsuka by the neck cuff of the dark blue samue.
"Holy crap man, you're a lot stronger than you look!" said Toritsuka. He flailed a bit, broom still in hand, the heels on his geta clacking loudly on the stone path, digging into the gravel. The entire scene had that look of a hulking murderer dragging a much smaller dead body. Except the murderer was a well-dress young man in a pair of khakis, a white collared short sleeve shirt and a vest.
"Oh, I work out, " said Akechi without any modesty, not slowing down his dragging of Toritsuka. Akechi's beady eyes had turned into hypnotizing swirls of quicksand, ready to entrap the next hapless victim who dared to engage him.
In this case, Toritsuka was the hapless victim.
"I used to get picked on a lot," Akechi was saying, completely ignoring how Toritsuka's body language was simply uninterested in whatever Akechi was saying. "I find that having a little strength is helpful to keep the bullies off of you. If it doesn't kill you, it'll make you stronger, as the saying goes. In that way, peeing my pants is kinda like that because no sane bully likes to pick on you if you've wet your pants, even if urine is a sterile liquid. They pick on you even less if you just had a bunch of asparagus.
"Back in elementary school, there were a few bullies that were not as deterred by it and nearly beat me to death! But Kusuo-kun saved me. I guess I was never in any real danger since Kusuo-kun was there. He could just heal me, blow the bullies away, or do one of his head things. In the end, he made it so that it seemed like I beat up those bullies. I wasn't picked on again in Elementary School."
Toritsuka was about to talk, seeing that Akechi's face had turned slightly blue.
No such luck. Akechi took a quick breath and resumed talking. "I didn't realize that Kusuo-kun saved me until recently, though. Those bullies kept on saying that I went on a rampage and destroyed the classroom. The school just thought that the school building was so old that a small earthquake would wreck the classroom. My other classmates thought the same thing as the bullies. The only thing that seemed to tie everyone's preception together was that Kusuo was in the middle. So I suspected that he was an esper. I mean, he has some serious protagonist syndrome. The looks. The mysterious air. Weird things happening around him. Nonstop transfer student. The works.
"I didn't mean to chase after him by attending PK Academy, though. That's an actual coincidence. It was what my mom thought was the best school with what she could afford along with dad's child support. Well, maybe I had a hand in it, since my mom asked me which school I want to attend and I picked three schools. PK Academy was the most balanced school for what I was going for. I never thought..."
"Oh, My Buddha! Shut up already!" Toritsuka cried, completely disregarding the normal human decency to wait for a break in the conversation. "I can't even manage an escape with you making me dizzy with everything you just said."
"But that's how I think and process ideas, Toritsuka-kun," said Akechi without remorse. "I think in my head about a bunch of things and I verbalize the most prominent thoughts. If I do that long enough, I can figure out anything. Didn't you ask me here to help you solve a puzzle?"
"And that's how you're going to figure out this kishin thing?" asked Toritsuka before he realized that he should have kept his mouth shut.
"Yep. I want to visit the bosatsu gallery for that very reason. Kishins are supposed to be bosatsus who yet crossed over to nirvana, or god of ghosts as you say. I figure that if we wander around holy places, like the bosatsu gallery, we will eventually run into some ghosts. That man with Teruhashi-san looked like one of those famous people who disguises like a hobo to avoid attention. He's not very good at it, since he's visibly glowing and his walking is so loud! You've said that ghosts like to congregate around famous people or people with extraordinary ability, right? So I thought maybe he attracts ghosts too and he's visiting the bosatsu gallery, a holy place that's got to attract kishins, right? I would've followed Teruhashi-san but she's only visiting a small shrine.
"Anyways, I think if we go to the bosatsu gallery, there should be either ghosts or kishins for you to query, even if you haven't seen any since this morning. Plus, it's good for my health to stretch out my legs, get my steps in for the day so I don't worry my parents, and increase their health insurance premiums, or whatever excuse company uses to make them pay an amount that doesn't come close to whatever benefit we're getting.
"By the way, do you know that most children, teenagers and young adults are chronically underhydrated? And that a periodic cleanse with just water for a day or so is recommended. Can you actually leave your temple duties? I was thinking that we should probably go into town..."
Toritsuka was not listening at all. He had kept on trying to break into the conversation but couldn't talk over Akechi's rapid-fire changing of topics. Toritsuka tuned Akechi out for two seconds as he fished out a phone and quickly texted Aiura.
-PLEASE SAVE ME!-
They had stopped short of the bosatsu gallery as Akechi expounded by the merits of going through a place like a shopping mall, or a concert hall, or a bus, or a train car at rush hour, etc, etc etc, to train Toritsuka's spirit medium ability so that Toritsuka could better separate ghosts from people.
Toritsuka ignored whatever Akechi was saying. He had perfected his ability to differentiate between people and ghosts by now. Heck, he could keep a couple of souls in his body and possess other people if he wanted. He just hadn't expounded on that to Akechi yet since the only people who knew about it were Saiki and Saiki's freaky older brother.
If only Akechi would ever shut up long enough for Toritsuka to get a word in and get solving on this malfunctioning psychic power crap.
They finally reached the bosatsu gallery. Something caught Toritsuka's attention, one that caused his eyes to nearly bugged out of his eye sockets.
"As I was saying..." Akechi paused a moment as he felt Toritsuka placed a firm grip on the wordy genius's shoulder. "What is it Toritsuka-kun? It is unusual for people to try to interrupt my soliloquy. Most know that they don't have a chance but they keep on trying. Oh! What's going on?"
The two were no more than five meters away from the homeless-looking man who was with Teruhashi earlier.
"What was I suppose to see?" asked Akechi. "I only see that homeless man who was with Teruhashi-san earlier. Are you seeing something through your spirit medium sight? Can you describe what you're seeing?"
The momentary silence offering by Akechi was precious and Toritsuka was about to open his mouth to say something. Except, Toritsuka was busy turning white, like he was a normal person, seeing a ghost.
"See. My intuition to follow that hobo is right!" celebrated Akechi. "That hobo must be some sort of an extraordinary person! Judging by your expression, you are seeing something out of the extraordinary. Speak of extraordinary, how long did it take the ghosts to tell you about Kusuo-kun? Did you have to ask the ghosts directly? Or did they volunteer the information? I know that Kusuo-kun didn't want attention and moved several times to avoid having to answer questions from his peers, but could he have done the same with ghosts? I don't think he can talk to ghosts. Kusuo-kun isn't a very good liar, you know. You'd think he'd be used to it by now, you know, have prepared answers to any questions that probed too deeply..."
Toritsuka was completely not paying attention to whatever Akechi was saying. "Are you even seeing this?" he asked over whatever Akechi was spouting.
Akechi looked briefly at the bosatsu gallery. "I see the hobo on his butt and a donation box upfront at the entrance. Is that what you're looking at?"
Toritsuka was about to say something, but Akechi, ever so predictably, already moved onto the next topic.
"Who are the benefactors of the Desire Temple?" asked Akechi. "They must be pretty wealthy since you can afford these statue displays and minimal donation boxes at every resting stop and a limited gift shop. Come to think of it. You're actually pretty well off for a monk, aren't you Toritsuka-kun? Aren't you suppose to take a vow of poverty. How come you can afford all those pornos, online gaming subscriptions, going out to cafes, promise coffees for girls and electric guitars for which you're absolutely horrid at. Does your father give you an allowance while you're here?"
Akechi would have further grilled Toritsuka until the spirit medium's head exploded, but Aiura showed up just in time to save the day.
"Sup, psychikers." She hailed. She took extra liberties with her greeting with Akechi and grabbed one of his arms like she was his girlfriend.
Sure enough, Akechi's cheeks blushed pink when he felt the forbidden soft womanly mounds on his arm. He even quietly mouthed "offu." The 'offu' was not as strong as meeting Teruhashi earlier, but still effective in terminating his thoughts down to a more normal range.
Whatever Toritsuka was looking at took so much attention that he did not notice Aiura.
"You're welcome, Pervy Monk," said Aiura offhandedly. Toritsuka could be so useless sometimes. Seriously. How useless can Toritsuka be that he had to call a girl to fend off a talky nerdy boy."Hey. Earth to Pervy Monk. Are you even listening?"
Aiura's eyes followed Toritsuka's gaze to the bosatsu gallery.
Looks like some weird homeless man was sitting awkwardly on his ass.
Aiura sucked in a breath as she let go of Akechi. "Shit. That guy has the mark of death on his face." Quickly cycling through her ocular gifts, she foresaw one of the disasters.
"You! Get out of there!" she shouted as she ran toward the bosatsu gallery.
In the next five seconds, Aiura was able to cross the few meters between where the PK Psyhickers were hanging out and the hobo. She grabbed the man's arm and began to drag.
The hobo was startled, of course. "Hey! What are you doing!?" he demanded.
Aiura was able to drag the man over by a body width before a heavy statue fell over, narrowly missed flattening homeless-looking man.
The rest, of the gang, Toritsuka and Akechi, both ran over to Aiura and the hobo.
Both Aiura and hobo stared at the spot where the statue had fallen. The statue was so heavy that it cracked the stone floor and most certainly would have crushed a person.
"Hey. Oji-san. Are you okay?" asked Aiura, even while she stared intently at his face.
Good to know that death marks could be seen even with a guy who tried to obscure his facial features. It was faded from before. So the Psychiker's interference had some effect.
Gratefulness was not the Oji-san response. The said homeless-looking Oji-san took off his facemask, glasses and beanie hat, displaying his full glow. "Who are you calling old?!" he demanded.
All three, Toritsuka, Aiura, and Akechi stared at the awesome glow and attractiveness of Teruhashi Makoto, a glow that could make straight men gay.
"Holy hotness! It's the idol Mugami Toru!" said Aiura with a gasp. "Wow! I didn't think I would meet you here. I've always wanted to meet you! You're hotter in person than I thought."
Even Torituska and Akechi were mesmerized.
Aiura was not paying attention to her fellow psychikers. Her hazel eyes narrowed slightly as her prescience quickly ran through one of the most common questions in an adolescent's mind. "But you're still a virgin, Muagami-san," said Aiura with a mischievous smile.
Teruhashi Makoto, better known by his stage name of Mugami Toru immediately blushed at that unusual assessment.
Sure enough, to the credit of Mugami Toru's charisma, his reaction only mutually made Aiura, Toritsuka and Akechi blush too, like they had been the ones who were embarrassed.
No time for more mutual blushing. Makoto blinked and began to panic when he heard a distant roar of a stampede and squealing of girls and women.
"I hear Mugami."
"I feel Mugami!"
"I can taste Mugami!"
"Shit!" said Mugami Toru. He quickly put his disguise back on. He pulled on Toritsuka's arm and demanded, "Monk-san, hide me!"
Toritsuka wasn't known for quick thinking. This was a dude and not one of his monk superiors, so his automatic ingratiating attitude didn't kick in. This was a hot looking dude, though, one who was so hot that Toritsuka wouldn't mind changing his preferences temporarily. The switch seemed to have broken his brain.
Aiura still had a presence of mind to act. "In here! Quickly," said Aiura, dragging them back into the bosatsu gallery, and crouched to hide behind the solid wooden bleachers upon which the statues were placed. Toritsuka followed.
Which left Akechi all by himself, outside the gallery.
There was an uproar outside the temple as the hoard of women arrived, invisibly drawn by their drone-like sixth sense for the idol Mugami. Once they arrived though, having their sixth sense failed them due to the very lack of the idol, they began to meander and mill around like love-struck zombies. Some of them even walked through the gallery, walking around the fallen statue like a large obstruction through a walking path was nothing unusual. On the plus side, they all donated to the charity box, since Mugami Toru might have touched it.
Some of the women accosted Akechi, demanding the teen to give up their idol.
Akechi was not completely unaware socially. He took the hint from his fellow psychikers and directed the woman to the next set of statues and shrines, telling them about the large, nearly car-sized bell and the log mallet. He hinted that the said idol Mugami might have gone that way and might have rung the bell and willingly donated 2,000 yen to the cause for great luck on his next movie deal. Akechi even offered to lead the women to the bell, which was conviniently located on the other corner of the temple.
The trio Aiura, Toritsuka, and Mugami who hide in the back of the bosatsu gallery tried not to breathe too much since it was somewhat dusty in the back area and no one wanted to cough or sneeze and catch attention.
It was a good ten minutes before, with the help of Akechi's relentless directions, the women wandered off.
Then, as if to permanently seal the deal, the ultimate threat to all women's self-esteem showed up, which came with another 'offu' from Akechi.
"Oh, Akechi-kun, what a pleasant surprise to see you again," came Kokomi's sweet voice.
"Offu!"
With her conquest reaffirmed, Kokomi moved on. "O-Nii-chan," Kokomi called sweetly. "I'm here. A bunch of women just walked past me. Did your sunglasses fall off?"
To the surprise of Aiura and Toritsuka their idol Mugami Toru immediately jumped up and scrambled toward the voice.
It was then that the PK Academy Psychikers realized that Teruhashi Kokomi's older brother, Teruhashi Makoto, was the famed idol Mugami Toru.
After the awkward initial realization, a lot of nervous gestures like scratching the back of the neck, twiddling of the fingers by the PK Academy Psychikers in front of such glowing beauties, Kokomi held her small hands together, her lips pert, eyes half winking and requested, "Please don't tell people that Mugami Toru is my older brother Teruhashi Makoto. I don't want an uproar at school."
Makoto was far more formal. Used to working in the entertainment business and interacting with managers and people of power, he knew the type of outward suck up displays that guaranteed favor. He had his hands on his sides and bowed deeply. "Please respect my little sister's wishes."
The awesome allures of the Teruhashis were far too powerful so PK Academy Psyhickers could only nod and swear to carry the secret to their graves.
Even Aiura did not have the heart to throw the usual challenge-look at Kokomi.
Before the Teruhashis and the PK Academy Psychikers parted ways, though, everyone helped to get the fallen bosatsu statue back to its original stand on the wooden bleachers. Toritsuka was going to do it himself, as a monk of the temple, but the statue was at least 50 kilograms, about 80 percent of Toritsuka's body weight. He did have half a mind to lift it himself, more to impress Teruhashi Kokomi than to actually perform his duties at the temple.
There was just one problem. The bleacher spot where the fallen statue used to sit was gouged and blackened like it had been burned. The blackened area was soft and brittle, which was the initial reason why the statue fell over in the first place. Makoto, Toritsuka, and Akechi were automatically delegated the task of at least wedging the statue to a place near the original location while the girls supervised.
"Well, that's strange," Toritsuka commented offhandedly as he picked up the small aluminum candle holder off the floor. Toritsuka placed the aluminum candle holder and its candle back into the right open palm hand of the bosatsu statue. "The candle holder is warm and the candle wax is soft."
"Why is that strange, Toritsuka-kun," asked Kokomi.
Having his name called by such an angel as Teruhashi Kokomi, Toritsuka took a moment to savor the sound of his own name. "The candles are supposed to be decorative," said Toritsuka. "We don't light them unless the gallery is attended by one of our adept monks." Toritsuka pointed to the ceiling. "The entire building is wood, paper with straw ceiling is glued together by a traditional oil-based binder. It's a big fire hazard."
At that, Makoto blinked as his interest was piqued by the mystery. "So that kid was real?"
"What kid?" asked Aiura, as she went back to being Akechi's pretend girlfriend.
"There was this little blond kid about this tall," explained Makoto, holding his hand at about waist high, "wearing a gray yukata. It was really weird. He pointed at the candles and they lit, so I assumed that the candles were one of those battery operated lights that you can turn on with a remote. I thought it was a trick."
At that, Kokomi peeped up. "Oh yeah. I saw a kid like that earlier too. He was at the Benzaiten shrine. He's by himself. I mean, it's not totally unusual for a kid like that to wander around by himself but the parents are somewhere nearby."
Makoto nodded. "Well, that kid said that his dad is at Ikkoku Yama Rural Hospital or something. It didn't sound like a place from around here, though."
"Ikkoku Yama?" echoed Akechi. "Hum...That's odd. If it's the Ikkoku Yama that I'm thinking of, then that's really far away."
All eyes were on Akechi. "Like how far?" asked Makoto.
Akechi's mind quickly reached for the endless facts that raced in his mind, "Last I checked, it's 1.5 hours by train, 2 hours by plane, another 2 hours by train, and 45 minutes by bus. Add at least half an hour in between stops and it takes about 9 to 10 hours to get there from here."
Everyone looked at Akechi like he some sort of freak of nature. "How the heck did you know that?" asked Aiura.
Not at all self-conscious, Akechi continued with spitting out the facts. "Ikkoku Yama is one of those aging small agrarian towns that gets talked about from time to time in the news. You know, the type with pretty much all old people when all the young people left for the cities, as if our society had forgotten all about filial piety and how that's a sign of societal collapse."
Everyone paid rapt attention, now that Akechi was not off spouting whatever came to his mind.
"There's a recent revival in Ikkoku Yama, though. A random eccentric millionaire injected a bunch of money into the town, upgrading infrastructures like the internet, cell towers, hospitals, public works, the road, stuff like that. So younger people had been moving to it more recently for the quiet country life but still have high-speed internet and healthcare access. It's still very hard to get to, physically. It's nestled in a valley and road washouts are common during the rainy season."
"How did you know that?" noted Makoto a twist of his brow. This felt almost like one of his detective shows, where he, the hero, had all the knowledge to solve a mystery. "That's an even more random fact."
"Well," said Akechi, "You've said it's Ikkoku Yama Rural Hospital. There's only one 'rural' town in the country called Ikkoku Yama. My best friend's grandparents live there."
At the discussion of that fact, Aiura and Toritsuka glanced at each other. As PK Psychikers who had worked closely together in the recent weeks, they've come to know each other a little better. They knew that there was only one person whom Akechi considered as a best friend.
That said best friend certainly didn't volunteer that information.
Sneaky Akechi must have been that creepy stalker/investigator to figure this out.
What else had Akechi found out about them?
Akechi touched his chin in thought. "Maybe this lost kid's parents divorced? My parents did that and they can't be within six hours of each other. I mean, my dad took out a restraining order against mom because she tracked him down and stabbed him."
The four other people in the group took a moment to sweatdrop, not sure if they heard him correctly.
Akechi continued without slowing down. "Not that is relevant to any of this, and dad lived, by the way. I'm just trying to think why a kid's parent be so far away. Eventually, one of the kid's parents will come looking for him, no? From the sound of it, it seemed like this kid looked like someone was taking care of him, right? I mean, yukatas cost more than regular clothes and take time to put them on. I think you should just let it play out. I'm sure one of the monks would help out."
Surprisingly, Akechi stopped right there and did not digress into another long-winded discussion.
"Well, whoever that is, Monk-san here will keep you updated," volunteered Aiura. "Right Monk-san?"
Toritsuka was not looking at Aiura. Instead, he looked to the rafters of the bosatsu gallery. His expression had turned pale.
"Earth to Toritsuka-kun," called Kokomi with her usual sweet voice. "Are you okay?"
Toritsuka nodded, his attention back to the group.
"Are you sure, Toritsuka-kun? You look like you've seen a ghost," said Kokomi.
Toritsuka swallowed hard. "You could say that." He looked back to his fellow PK Academy Psychikers. It was obvious they had to meet soon.
Before the group could move onto the next thing, they heard several blood-curdling screams in the distance.
Makoto immediately grabbed his sister and held onto her protectively.
As for Aiura, she immediately grabbed hold of Akechi.
Poor Akechi, he seemed to be the most stable and steady person of the PK Academy Psychikers since even Toritsuka grabbed onto Akechi.
A short moment later, the group of five saw a rush of monks going toward the bell monument, where Akechi had sent the rabid Mugami fans.
"Junpei!" called Toritsuka to one of the monks. "What happened?"
The said Junpei was a generic-looking monk, with a shaved head, prayer beads, and dark gray samue to indicate that he had advanced past the initiate monk ranking. He was just talking on a cell phone, the serious expression clearly indicating that he was in communication with whoever was in on the action.
"The two-tonne bell broke!" yelled Junpei. "It seemed like a kid got hurt."
"Who?"
"Some high school kid," said Junpei. "I don't know the details, but Senji said the bell fell on the kid's head and pinned the kid to a railing. There is at least a concussion and a broken bone."
There was no time for the group to gasp.
"I gotta go Reita. The ambulance and emergency rescue had already been called," said Junpei. "Please escort your friends and visitors off the premises."
