Chapter 34: The Difference Between the Strange and the Uninvited (7)

 

“Behold. You Shinto priests will now abandon your unrewarded faith and transform anew. Instead of a worthless sacred object that only hides itself and cuts off divine power to escape crisis, you can serve a more perfect and helpful god. How is this not a good thing? It’s a celebration, truly a celebration.”

 

Jinseong said this while looking at Rise screaming and Kenji in despair. At this, Rise jerked her head up and shouted in a wail:

 

“Mukurikokuri no Inugami didn’t abandon us! He didn’t abandon us!”

 

But Jinseong looked upon her wailing with pity.

 

That expression had some resemblance to the one the doctor had worn while she was wandering in the dream within a dream, so Rise momentarily stopped wailing and stared blankly at Jinseong’s face.

 

“Pitiful, truly pitiful. The ignorant may be happy, but unrequited love always leads to ruin.”

 

“Huh…?”

 

“Oh shrine maiden, shrine maiden. No matter how much you deny it, the truth never changes.”

 

Saying this, he took out several short sticks from his bosom. These rough and thin green objects were incense sticks often seen in rituals. But what was unusual was that unlike normal incense sticks which were a solid green color, the ones Jinseong took out seemed to change appearance every time they caught the light.

 

From translucent green to opaque green, then to the texture of ordinary incense. Then to a glossy green, a green reminiscent of moss, and finally to the color of fresh leaves. These incense sticks that continuously changed color and texture seemed more like living creatures than objects. They evoked thoughts of strange creatures that probably didn’t exist in nature.

 

Jinseong held the incense and went right in front of Rise, then blew gently on the unlit tip of it like blowing dandelion seeds.

 

“Eek!”

 

The incense then sprayed forth green powder as if spraying from a can, and Rise, caught off guard, got it right in her eyes. And of course, she also inhaled a large amount of powder into her respiratory system.

 

“What… is… this…”

 

“When you wake up, you’ll have to convert. You’ll briefly taste the state of Samadhi, so cast off all worries and go see the world of turiya.”

 

“Don’t… want… to… dream…”

 

Rise, having inhaled the powder, instantly felt her eyes unfocus and her muscles lose strength. Not just the muscles in her arms and legs, but even the muscles used for breathing seemed to lose strength, making her feel suffocated and her brain deprived of oxygen.

 

She tried hard not to close her eyes, afraid of falling back into a dream within a dream. But her increasingly hazy head and drooping eyelids like they bore a thousand-pound weight, along with her choking throat and loosened muscles that made her collapse to the floor in a heap, naturally made her fall asleep.

 

Thus, Rise fell asleep with a face filled with terror.

 

“Again! What are you trying to do to my daughter again!”

 

Kenji, seeing this, shouted while vigorously twisting his body as if trying to break free from his restraints. The sight of him shouting with veins popping on his neck might have seemed full of fatherly love at first glance, but Jinseong merely snorted.

 

“Disgusting drug addict. How can you react to the smell of drugs rather than your daughter’s well-being?”

 

That’s right.

 

“At first glance” meant that in reality, it wasn’t so.

 

As proof, Kenji’s gaze was directed not at his fallen daughter but at the incense Jinseong was holding in his hand, and perhaps thinking of the pleasure he had experienced while intoxicated by drugs, Kenji’s lower parts were swollen. Moreover, his breathing had become rough, and his face had turned bright red from excitement.

 

Wasn’t it truly a disgusting sight?

 

“This child should be grateful to me. She would have soon caused a great accident while intoxicated. Tsk.”

 

Jinseong muttered this while plucking one of his own hairs. Then, slowly rubbing it between his index finger and thumb, he said:

 

“Like begets like, and what was once one body tries to become one even when separated. Imitate what is in my body, gain life, and take form.”

 

At this, the hair he had plucked gradually turned white. Not turning white as if bleached, but taking on a distinct white color with a sheen. Then, it stood up stiffly as if it hadn’t been limp and drooping and began to wriggle like it was happy.

 

“I’ll give you something better than just drugs.”

 

Jinseong grabbed Kenji’s face tightly with one hand.

 

“Ah, aaaagh!”

 

Kenji screamed in unbearable pain, and the wriggling hair entered his mouth as it opened.

 

“Ah? Ah! Agh! Ah, ah? Ah? Ah. Ah…”

 

As the worm-like hair burrowed into his body, Kenji kept screaming. But Kenji’s drug-damaged nerves seemed to feel not just pain but other sensations as well, as he twisted his body from feeling hot, startled, or joyful repeatedly, showing strange reactions.

 

Jinseong watched this quietly, and when Kenji’s eyes started rolling wildly, he took out the incense and blew it at him.

 

Whoosh.

 

“Ah… ah…”

 

Then, just as Rise had done earlier, Kenji’s head drooped and he went off to the world of dreams.

 

“■■”

 

The Saetani, watching the two who had fallen asleep, twisted its body grotesquely and tilted its head sideways as if salivating, but he grabbed the Saetani’s head tightly and prevented it from moving.

 

“That is not allowed.”

 

At this, the Saetani looked at him strangely and then kneaded its face with its broken fingers.

 

Broken and rotten black nails scratched its face, and the broken fingers changed shape again and again as if they were clay.

 

When the Saetani finally removed its hands from its face, its facial features had become that of the nurse Rise had seen in her dream.

 

The Saetani spoke with the nurse’s face:

 

“Doctor.”

 

The voice sounded like that of an ordinary woman at first listen. But if one listened carefully, it would be easy to notice that all of the voice was made up of different people’s voices.

 

A five-syllable word. (‘Doctor’ is five syllables in Korean as an address)

 

And five different voices.

 

Rather than speaking with its own vocal cords, it seemed to be imitating voices made by others. The combination of mismatched voices especially was eerie and alien, like making a letter by cutting out letters from a newspaper.

 

“Why. Can’t. I. Do. It?”

 

The Saetani’s head twisted more and more.

 

The slightly tilted head became a head turned 90 degrees, then 120 degrees, and finally completely 180 degrees. The mouth at the very top of the inverted face, only possible by breaking the neck, kept opening and closing as if trying to imitate a person.

 

“I want to play.”

 

“I want to play.”

 

“I want to play.”

 

“I.”

 

“Want. To.”

 

“Play.”

 

Jinseong stared at this grotesque sight and said:

 

“Om mani padme hum (ॐ मणि पद्मे हूँ).”

 

Whack!

 

He struck the Saetani with the peach wood prayer beads in his bosom.

 

“Keek! Keeaak!”

 

The Saetani, hit by what seemed like a light slap, twisted its body and screamed in pain.

 

“You dare try to bewitch me. Do I look that foolish to you?”

 

“Hic! I’m sowwy! I’m sowwy!”

 

The Saetani begged for forgiveness with a crumbling face.

 

Jinseong stared at it silently.

 

“If you do that again, I will tear your soul to shreds. Do you understand?”

 

“Yes! I undahstand!”

 

The Saetani kept shouting with slurred pronunciation and then went into a corner out of Jinseong’s sight and hunched to hide its body. Thinking it still couldn’t escape his sight, it crumpled its arms and twisted its legs. Then it buried its head between them, making its body into a sphere to avoid his gaze.

 

Tsk. As I expected, it’s truly unpredictable. It would be right to put shackles on that thing too.

 

He threw Rise and Kenji, who were collapsed on the floor, in the opposite direction of the Saetani.

 

Then he began the ritual.

 

“Om gam ganapataye namah (ॐ गम गणपतये नमः).”

 

Jinseong closed his eyes and shook the bell in his hand.

 

Jingle——-

 

An enormous sound that was hard to believe came from such a small bell. Moreover, the sound that spread infinitely long like a sound from a stretched tape shook the entire main hall with vibrations and then disappeared.

 

Jinseong swung the bell again.

 

Jingle———!

 

A clear and bright sound rang out once more.

 

Rumble!

 

This time, the sound that flew towards an empty corner of the main hall instead of the entire place got trapped, amplifying and reflecting the sound, concentrating the vibration in one place. The sound trapped in an invisible, intangible wall evoked thoughts of an evil spirit struggling to escape from a fire pit, so if someone were to see this scene, they would surely think that a nightmare had taken the form of sound.

 

“Om amogha vairochana mahamudra mani padma jvala pravartaya hum (ओं अमोघ वैरोचन महामुद्रा मणि पद्म ज्वाल प्रवर्त्तय हूं).”

 

Following the bell sound was the mantra (मन्त्र) Jinseong uttered. The incantation imbued with sorcerous power shook the space as soon as it left his mouth, trying to return the distorted to its original state.

 

“Om amogha vairochana mahamudra mani padma jvala pravartaya hum (ओं अमोघ वैरोचन महामुद्रा मणि पद्म ज्वाल प्रवर्त्तय हूं).”

 

Jingle—-!

 

The distorted atmosphere, struggling to hide something, used all its strength to maintain its existence, but it couldn’t withstand the echoing bell sound shaking it and the power of the incantation from outside trying to return the space to a ‘normal’ state with its sorcerous power.

 

“Om amogha vairochana mahamudra mani padma jvala pravartaya hum (ओं अमोघ वैरोचन महामुद्रा मणि पद्म ज्वाल प्रवर्त्तय हूं)!”

 

Finally, when Jinseong chanted the incantation for the third time, what the distorted space was hiding was revealed with a clang.

 

The divine power forming a curtain to hide itself.

 

A carefully made altar.

 

And a dog-like stone placed on top of it.

 

Jinseong looked at it and said:

 

“Did you think I wouldn’t find you if you cut the connection and hid?”