The Bakemono Project - Ao bōzu
[lb2]
Investigating murderers. It wasn't an every day occurrence for the kitsune to be requested in the assistance of such but since the local militia was at a loss as to why the bodies were found around the well and nowhere else they had reluctantly decided on contacting the priestesses. The head Priestess had accepted the request and delegated the task to her daughter instead under the pretence she was 'too occupied'. Misaki had puffed up her cheeks, knowing well that her mother's business was just sleeping for another few hours but as the woman walked away with a bratty laugh, Misaki was left alone to deal with it no matter what. Murders. She wasn't sure what to think about it. If the militia couldn't figure out what was going on, then why would she? She was a medic in training and a priestess, not an investigator. Right? Still, her mother had little ears for her questions and worries, mentioning she had already seen the conclusion in the cards that Misaki would do just fine. The young kitsune wasn't sure to what extend she could blindly believe such claims but doubting her mother was just as bad. Misaki sighed. Better to just drop the topic and go about it. She would be fine. Probably.When she arrived at the meeting point, dressed in the garbs of the onmyouji she was, a man would salute her before he guided her to the place where the murders had transpired. Around a stone well stood a circle of houses forming the end of the road. Once inhabited, the owners of this area had either moved away in fear or died at the hands of the assassin. Misaki could feel the lingering spirit of fear and loneliness pervading the area.
"We found every body around the well. It first started with the disappearance of a child. He was found back at the bottom of the pit by the villagers. The mother who was left behind had already lost her husband, so after the incident she returned to live with her parents.", he'd explain, shaking his head in empathy of what the young mother had gone through. Pointing at the empty house, he'd continue. "She used to live over there, moved away about a year ago."
They'd move over to the house, unlock the door and slide the shoji panelling aside. The house suddenly seemed to breathe again as fresh air blew into the closed off building. The paper walls within the house had since long lost their strength, countless holes being in need of repairs. Misaki instantly thought about the mokumokuren, but since no one lived in here the chance was small that they'd be around at night. Other than that, the house looked empty, covered in a layer of dust thick enough to clearly reveal footprints if there were any. Nothing was left behind, the house clearly abandoned since quite some time.
"Poor woman.", the man would continue. "You're a priestess, right? I can leave the door open if you need to do your ah... ritual thing."
"I might do one just for good measure, thank you."
"Right. So since a week or two, people who try to get water get killed. Hanged up, everyone of them, above the water pit."
"Hanged?"
"Yes. And what's more is, they are all women. Men going outside are spared. Unfortunately no one had seen or heard anything when it happened, except for one man with a rather dubious tale"
"What's his story?
"The man was drunk, mind you, but he claims to have seen a dark-skinned man at the well, talking to his wife. He looked like a pilgrim or so, thinking nothing of it, but after she hadn't returned for ten minutes and went looking outside, he found her dead. There had been no sound or whatsoever. Just... one moment later she was hung."
Misaki's mind would open the knowledge on yokai she knew, flipping through the pages of her mental library to figure out a spirit that would match the profile. She was fairly certain she had heard a tale like this before, but considering the vast amount of murderous yokai to begin with it was rather difficult to precise which one it could be. Many yokai held grudges for a specific reason or against a specific person. This one clearly targeting women.
"I think I have an idea what it is. Please evacuate all the people around the well, I'll be sleeping here for the night."
"The people have already moved. No one feels like living here since. Are you sure this is a good idea though?"
"I'm fairly certain the culprit will be interested in a gorgeous girl like me~", she'd say with a playful wink.
"That doesn't sound assuring!"
"Oh, worried? That's so cute of you. But really, I'll be fine~"
"Hrm, if you say so..."
The man would walk away, leaving Misaki to make her preparations for the coming ritual. If her guess was right, the yokai would return the moment she'd go get water.
Night was about to fall. Seals were in place, and she was wearing her priestess clothes. Ofuda seals were ready to be revealed. The moment of truth would reveal itself. Misaki took an empty bucket and moved to the water well. Casually she'd hook the bucket up and allow it to descend down the pit, filled it with water and pulled it back up. Pulling the bucket then on the thick stone border that formed the well itself, she'd wipe the sweat of her head and turn around to bring the now full bucket back home. And there he was. The blue monk wearing tattered robes, eyes closed yet looking at her. Those who could see spirit could see a large third eye staring straight at her.
“Would you like to hang by your neck?”, he would ask her. His voice was dull. Like he was compelled to ask her this without any particular motivation to do so.
"No thank you, ao bōzu, but before you go...", she'd fling the ofuda seal at him, the piece of paper imbued with her spiritual power forcing him to remain in position as it paralysed him. "Onmyoudo - Nine Sages Celestial Purification."
Her preparations would come to fruition. The seals drawn around the area would light up with bright light and form a barrier to keep others out while the yokai was trapped inside. Misaki's katon affinity would reveal itself, the kitsune now strangely illuminated by a coat of foxfire chakra resplendent in hues of white, pink and purple as spiritual power manifested within the Priestess' daughter. Perhaps for a first, the kitsune did not look like a 15 year old brat but like a celestial being with an ageless demeanour. The monk remained unfazed, however, as if it cared little about its fate and was just waiting for things to happen.
"Wouldn't you agree that you hung enough people by their neck, ao bōzu?"
The monk sighed slowly.
"So Inari's child reveals herself. Are you here to test your priestly powers against mine?"
"Priests don't snatch children, neither do they hang people, ao bōzu, but if it is a contest you want, try to resist the Nine Sages Celestial Purification."
Chakra would pour out of the kitsune as Yin and Yang were set into motion. The yokai would find itself enveloped by a soothing white flame that burned away impurities. Strands of black energy would leave the monk's body, his face remaining stoic in the process. The ao bōzu was a priest in its own faith, even though others could easily see him as corrupt and dangerous. Its resolve would not waver in the slightest and so the next level of the Seal would activate. The dusk colour of the ao bōzu would gradually shift as its timeless body was being into the now and here, its gloomy mood slowly being erased it became aware of the effects of time itself. The pain of its actual age was setting in, weakening its willpower as the possibility of erasure was dawning as a new reality. It grit its teeth, starting to concentrate on the increasingly growing hold of the kitsune's technique. The next level would set in, Misaki throwing in five more ofuda talismans. Each of them inscribed with a different symbol of power, relating them to the five Wu Xing elements of old. Whatever power the ao bōzu through the fear of the people was brutally burned away, forcing a cry of agony out of the monk as part of its essence was being transformed into a black smoke and purified by the white flame.
"Are you ready to find peace, ao bōzu?"
"I- I can't renounce... my faith. I am true faith!"
"If you held true faith you would not be lingering on this world. Allow me to enlighten you with the Jewel in the Lotus."
Coming to the sixth Seal of the technique, all attachments anchoring the ao bōzu would be removed from his core. Its false faith that bound him burst and broke, the self-indulging desires dissipated in the cleansing flame. At that point, nothing of its impurity remained. The monk looked peaceful. Accepting the end of an ageless time, compelled to indulge the dark curse that bound it to this world, it would now pass over. The lost soul slowly disappeared in the purifying flame as it transcended its pitiful existence to become one with the universal energies. Freed from its karmic curse, it could now choose to be reborn.
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