“Please help us move a grave-like object”… A monk receives a bizarre and mysterious request - Part 8

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Philosopher Enryō Inoue, aka Dr. Yōkai

⭐️READ PREVIOUS EPISODES FROM HERE

(Translated and Arranged by Saya)

A great senpai monk of the same school once said, “there are 4 types of Kai (Note: Kai 怪 here means occult phenomena) : Gikai (偽怪 fake, artificially created Kai), Gokai (誤怪 an occurrence mistaken as Kai when it is not actually Kai), Kakai (仮怪 Kai born out of fear and misunderstanding) and Shinkai (真怪 True Kai. Real occult phenomena). 1️⃣

I was starting to wonder which of these that I had just experienced. 

———

Note:

1️⃣This is a classification devised by the philosopher Enryō Inoue (井上円了), also known as Yōkai Hakase (妖怪博士 Dr. Yōkai),  photographed at the top of the post. 

Links:

https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/6009/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoue_Enryō

———

It seemed pointless to search for an answer when there appeared to be none, and I told myself this was reality and not a novel or film, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was more to it than meets the eye. 

T san and Okusama showered me with words of gratitude, and kindly offered me to stay overnight at their house so that they could treat me for dinner; but since I already had a plan to for the following day, I politely declined it and told them I must return home that day. 

It had been such a long day… but was it really over?

So many thoughts flickered through my mind. I even shared some of my concerns with the couple before leaving the house.

The couple and I had plenty of time to talk during the ride home. 

The sun was still up and it gave me an opportunity to observe the surrounding area again from different angles. 

After a while, a house came into view, which was the first “neighbouring” house we encountered. 

“What’s that.…!?”

I yelled in spite of myself. 

“Huh?”

T san slammed on brakes and the car stopped. 

T san: 

“Obōsan, are you ok? What’s happened?”

“Look at the roof of that house!”

Okusama:

“Ahhh!!”

An abnormally large flock of crows perched on the roof of the house. 

I had never seen such a large number of crows gathered together in one place like that in my entire life. 

It was such a strikingly odd sight that I felt impelled to take a picture of it. 

However, the moment I rolled down the window, most of the crows somehow took fright and flew away, although I hadn’t made any noise. 

T san:

“Does that have anything to do with us?”

“I’m not sure… but they have flown away, and it’s not your house, so I suppose it’s fine.”

Photo credit to 不思議ネット

(Note: This photo was not originally posted on the thread, but obtained directly from the monk by an administrator of an occult curation website who privately contacted the monk. The monk, apparently, only managed to take this photo after most of the crows had flown away.)

209:

Either those spirits had gone over to the house,

Or that neighbour had put some sort of curse on T san which rebounded on themselves. 

Or perhaps they really have nothing to do with it. 

I’m curious as to what the truth is.

210:

>>208

>>209

I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Perhaps a neighbour who didn’t want any outsiders living in the area was sending their ikiryō 2️⃣ over to T san…?

———

Note:

2️⃣ikiryō (生霊) is a disembodied spirit or ghost that leaves the body of a living person and subsequently haunts other people or places, sometimes across great distances. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiryō

———

211 (OP):

Right after I finished saying it, I exclaimed, “Ah!” again. 

Both T san and Okusama cried out, “what’s wrong?”

“Sumimasen, my phone suddenly rang (it started vibrating) and it scared me. I easily get scared.”

T san and Okusama chuckled. 

But I wasn’t trying to loosen them up or anything. 

Suddenly, email after email started coming in. 

I had many missed calls too. And many text messages…

Why was I not able to receive them while I was in T san’s house? 

I wondered, and asked the couple, “er, your house isn’t outside the mobile coverage area, is it?” 

T san: 

“Of course not (lol) if that was the case, how could I have called you (lol) ?”

“Hahaha, yes, of course. Sumimasen.”

I hesitated to listen to recorded messages in the car, so I opened the emails instead. 

They were all from my family. 

I had only told them roughly how long this work might take, and in actual fact it had taken much longer than other usual Buddhist services. And moreover, their calls had never gotten through to me, so they were very worried.

I sent a reply to them saying, the reason it was taking so long was that I had come to the furthest end of the prefecture, and now I was on my way home. 

I had no intention of telling them anything about the bizarre occurrences that I had experienced, for fear of making them worry unnecessarily.

I arrived home safely, and the couple again thanked me profusely before leaving.

I told them, “should you encounter any troubles, please don’t hesitate to contact me again,” but I sincerely hoped nothing would ever happen again. 

That night I was so worn out to the point that I fell asleep while taking a bath. 

A traditional Japanese bath tub made of the aromatic wood, Hinoki