“Please help us move a grave-like object”… A monk receives a bizarre and mysterious request - Part 3

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PART ONE

PART TWO

(Translated and Arranged by Saya)

T san: 

“The pictures aren’t enough. They have to see the real things… And then, the very next day after the visit of the town office workers, they reappeared.”

“What? You mean the bones?” 

T san:

“Yes. I know they will be there today too. I would like you to see them. Please.” 

I took my mobile phone with me as I went into the garden with T san and Okusama.

I thought I could take some photos of the bones with it if we found them. 

As I was putting my shoes on, I again heard a loud “BANG!” somewhere in the house, and some windows rattling. 

Okusama: 

“We are not so stupid as not to have recorded these sounds before, but the town office workers said the sounds were unrelated to the bones, and they asked us in return, ‘what are these sounds anyway?’ 

We are truly at a loss as to what to do.” 

And so all three of us went out of the entrance, and from there walked clockwise to reach the garden that had a superb view of the sea. 

One corner of it was covered with a blue tarp that looked out of place in such a beautiful garden.

Standing there, I felt like I was no longer there as a monk. 

Something strange was happening, and I had experienced those disturbing sounds and vibrations directly with my own body. That was an incontrovertible fact. 

I was just there as someone who wished to satisfy his own curiosity, and at that moment, my urge to know more was stronger than my fear. 

136(OP): 

As I got closer to the blue tarp, I noticed that the grass around it had turned brownish. 

Clutching my prayer beads firmly in my hand, I started chanting sutra in my mind even before T san turned over the blue tarp. 

Once the blue tarp was removed, a sickeningly large number of bones and oyster shells were revealed, just as T san had warned me. 

T san: 

“See there? I wasn’t lying. You see them, don’t you, Obosan? These things. Here and here.” 

Hmm? 

Once again, I felt something was not quite right. 

There was no odour…

“T san, even though there are so many bones and other kinds of rubbish, we don’t smell anything. Have you noticed that?” 

T san: 

“Could it be simply because they have been buried underground for a long time? 

But more importantly, do you see them right now?”

“Yes, I do. Can I take a picture of them?”

T san:

“Of course, you can. Please. Please do.” 

I wondered if some unknown force would prevent me from taking a picture. But:

Click! 

It was done. 

“Please may I touch them, too, T san?” 

T san: 

“Yes, sure. Please, please.”

Having said that, I didn’t dare touch them with my bare hands, so I picked up a small garden spade that was lying around and used it to prod at a piece of bone in front of me. 

Tock! I could feel the hardness of it. It was a real, tangible object.

I prodded at other bones just to be sure, and they all felt real too. 

Just then, Okusama exclaimed in a low voice: “oh!” 

When I turned around, Okusama was pointing at a window (later I confirmed that it was the kitchen window), saying, “Look! That…that thing…!” gesturing me to look at it as well. 

142:

>>136

What happened? 

I hope he will come back to continue the story soon

137: 

I’m reading.

Please continue 

138: 

I’m seriously intrigued 

******************

154(OP): 

I looked where Okusama was pointing, and literally froze. 

I was beyond shocked and could not even utter a word. 

There was a man in grey workwear standing outside the kitchen, gripping the window frame with both hands and shaking it vigorously. 

I could comprehend that it was an entity not of this world by the way it looked and the vibe it was giving off, but - how can I put it - it was like a highly visible UFO suddenly appeared above a metropolis in the middle of the day — I saw it TOO clearly that I had no time to feel surprised. 

Perhaps for a few seconds, I stood petrified at the spot.

Then T san, sounding a little panicky, whispered to me:

“Obosan, that’s him. The man in T-shirt, that’s another one.” 

“What, T-shirt?” 

To me, the man was clearly wearing grey workwear, but T san described him as a “man in T-shirt.” 

“T san, did you just say the man in T-shirt?”

T san: 

“Eh? Obosan can’t see that? That man?”

“Yes, I do see him.”

T san:

“Eh?”

“But he is wearing grey workwear, not a T-shirt.” 

T san: 

“Eh? Isn’t he wearing a dirty T-shirt, covered with mud…?” 

155(OP): 

It had only been four hours since I left home, but so many strange things had happened in such a short amount of time, and moreover, I had never seen an entity that was probably not of this world so clearly before. 

I could even see the creases on the workwear, and the dirt on the back of his hands that gripped the window frame. 

But T san says he sees a dirty T-shirt…

So many things were happening all at once that my mind had become stupefied. 

As I have mentioned before, chanting incantations and casting spells are prohibited in our school’s doctrines. 

We can certainly not do those things such as the exorcist does in the manga Kujaku Oh (Peacock King) 1️⃣ …

But I knew at that very moment, T san and his wife were expecting me to perform that sort of thing. 

What should I do…

Just as I thought that, I remembered the dokkosho I had brought with me. 

A dokkosho. See Part One for more info.

I hastily took it out of the sleeve and held it together with the prayer beads towards the man in workwear, while chanting the myogo 2️⃣ (although this was not really allowed), and in addition, said aloud the name of the principal image in Sanskrit. 

(This is not a proper approach to take. It was something I just decided to do on the spot.) 

I prayed that he would be sent to Jodo (Note: the Pure Land, the Buddhist paradise). 

—————-

Note: 

1️⃣ Peacock King (Wikipedia)

> Read it online from here

2️⃣Myogo (名号, pronounced as Myoh-goh)

— a name of a Buddha or a Bodisattva. It often refers to the four-word phrase of 阿弥陀仏 (Amida Butsu) or the six-word phrase of 南無阿弥陀 (Namu Amida Butsu) 

See this for further information. 

157: 

>>155

((((；゜Д゜)))

So scary…but I can’t stop reading!! 

I know you are busy but please come back soon to write more 

163(OP): 

While I was doing all those things, I kept my eyes squarely on the man in workwear. 

His hair, which looked partly white either due to dried mud or grey hair, and his slightly sunburned arms and neck — I still remember all of these so vividly. 

But I could not see his face. 

I was not standing that far from him, and normally anyone’s face would have been visible from that distance. But somehow, his face remained invisible to me. 

It was strange considering I could see each and every crease on his workwear.

I don’t know why but I felt I must pray even more intensely, so just for a short while, I closed my eyes, and put my all heart and soul into chanting the myogo. I think this lasted only for a few seconds. 

Soon, my ears caught T san’s voice as he muttered: “He’s disappeared…” 

I also heard Okusama utter: “Ahh…” 

When I opened my eyes, the man in workwear was gone.

Once I lowered my arms which had been outstretched in front of me, T san and Okusama came up to me to say “thank you.” 

I had no idea which part of my actions worked, but for the time being, the man in workwear had left the place. 

Then I thought, perhaps a little inappropriately, that I should have taken a photo or video of it with my phone.

I asked T san and Okusama if they had taken anything but they hadn’t, as I had expected.

I went to look at the window frame the man had been gripping and shaking. I thought there might be some handprints left on them. 

But of course, there was none, even though the man’s hands were covered with mud.

Which confirmed that the man was an incorporeal entity just as I had feared.

From that point onwards, I started to feel scared again. I was trying so hard to figure out how best to deal with the situation. 

I’m sorry but I will have to leave again for a while.

164: 

>>163

Excited (*°▽°)

168:

I hope Obosan will come back soon to continue the story ~~ 

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