Chapter 53: The Great Buddha of Kamakura

The courtyard was deep and the ancient trees were tall. The moss on the veranda was mottled, and the light and shadow intertwined, creating a solemn atmosphere.

Minamoto Kiyomoto was saying goodbye to Itomi Sayaka.

“Sayaka, you have to be careful of this Miss Hanyu Chika,” he said.

“What?” Itomi Sayaka thought she had misheard.

“She knows our secret, and she has a grudge against our organization. She might report us to Shintoism and the officials.”

“What do you mean by that?” Itomi Sayaka frowned slightly.

Hanyu Chika also frowned. Minamoto Kiyomoto had said it in front of her.

“I don’t want to deal with troublesome things, so I’m trying to drive a wedge between you two and have you keep an eye on her,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with a smile.

“Then you’ve found the wrong person,” Itomi Sayaka replied immediately.

Minamoto Kiyomoto smiled slightly and reminded her, “Don’t forget, if you’re exposed, your sister will be finished.”

The look in Itomi Sayaka’s eyes instantly turned to hatred.

“I won’t do that kind of thing!” Hanyu Chika said fiercely.

Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t mind and continued to say to Itomi Sayaka:
“If it were your sister who died, and the one who killed your sister was the Divine Miko, and you couldn’t get revenge yourself, what would you do? From this perspective, be on guard against Miss Hanyu Chika. This will be good for you and for me.”

“I believe Chika,” Itomi Sayaka’s tone was cold.

“Since you don’t believe me, why did you let me join?” Hanyu Chika asked Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“Because you’re Sayaka’s friend,” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s tone was calm. “If I killed you, she would be sad. Although I’m using her sister to threaten her, I want to be friends with her in my heart, and I plan to bury the hatchet in the future.”

Itomi Sayaka suddenly laughed.

“You don’t think I’ll believe you, do you?” she said mockingly.

“I like to treat people with sincerity. You’ll know in the future. You must remember what I said just now. It doesn’t matter if I’m wanted. It’s not bad to wander the world and travel the world, but I don’t want my mother to be involved. I think you’re the same.”

Itomi Sayaka just sneered.

Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t mind and said to Hanyu Chika again:
“Miss Chika, you know better than I do how Sayaka treats you. Whether you want to sacrifice your living friend for someone who is already dead, you should think about it carefully.”

Hanyu Chika glared at Minamoto Kiyomoto. After a while, she said, “You devil.”

“Wrong, wrong, I’m a god. Our organization is called ‘Takamagahara,’ have you forgotten, Miss Chika?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with a grin.

After the five of them agreed to meet at four in the afternoon, they separated unhappily.

“I think you’re very much like a devil,” Himemiya Izayoi said.

“I agree,” Kamibayashi Miko nodded.

“Why don’t you two do it?” Minamoto Kiyomoto made a gesture of invitation. “One of you was sitting there drinking tea, and the other was even more outrageous, having me, who was in the middle of negotiations, massage her legs. You didn’t do anything, and now you’re saying I’m like a devil?”

“What was that phrase again?” Himemiya Izayoi looked at the sky like an innocent girl, with a thoughtful expression.

“Which phrase?”

“Someone told me, how did it go—” Himemiya Izayoi closed her eyes and gently tapped her head with her fan.

But her expression clearly showed that she had already thought of it. The corners of her mouth curled into a beautiful arc, very cute.

“That’s right!” she opened her eyes, which were like the sparkling Milky Way, and said word by word, “‘The skillful are weary, and the wise are worried. The incompetent have nothing to seek.’ You are the wise, you are the capable, so of course you have to worry more.”

“Aren’t you two wise? Aren’t you two capable?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

“Yes,” Himemiya Izayoi nodded as if it were a matter of course.

“Then why am I the only one worrying?”

“I, I, Izayoi tried hard to act fierce just now~”

“…Sister Izayoi, how old are you this year?”

“Fourteen.”

“I think you’re only four,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said.

Himemiya Izayoi laughed and hit his arm with her fan, “Okay, Young Master Kiyoshi, you’ve worked hard. I’ll serve you well tonight.”

“No!” Minamoto Kiyomoto immediately refused. “I want to find a wife who is thirty years younger than me, but that’s on the premise that the other person is over sixteen, not making a move on a four-year-old.”

“That’s enough!”

The three of them walked into the dense bamboo forest, which was like an ocean, laughing and talking. A few cats were squatting on the gentle stone steps.

The people they met along the way were all discussing the strong wind that had come and gone just now.

“Don’t you think I was very handsome just now? A bit of a heart-player? I’ve wanted to try this for a long time,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said proudly.

“That’s because the two of us were backing you up,” Kamibayashi Miko was warning him not to be so competitive all the time.

“Without you, I definitely wouldn’t have done that. I’m not a fool. And I don’t want to do this kind of thing. ‘It’s not me who’s wrong, it’s the world’—well, I’ve wanted to say this line for a long time. Next time, I want to try ‘my pain is greater than yours’.”

“What pain do you have?” Himemiya Izayoi asked.

“Poverty,” after a pause, Minamoto Kiyomoto added an adjective, “very.”

The midday sun flickered in the bamboo forest, like a lively fish playing in the sea of trees.

◇

The Great Buddha of Kamakura sat high in the open air. It was a seated statue of Amitabha Tathagata, located at the Kotoku-in Temple of the Jodo sect.

It was called the Great Buddha, but its net height was only 11.3 meters. Including the pedestal, it was only 13.35 meters, and it weighed about 121 tons.

Itomi Sayaka stood in front of the Great Buddha, staring at it in a daze.

“Sayaka, everyone has arrived,” Hanyu Chika walked to her side and said softly.

“Yes,” Itomi Sayaka still looked at the Great Buddha. “Chika, do you think there really is a Buddha in the world?”

“I don’t know either,” Hanyu Chika’s expression was dim. “If there is, why would he pass on the Dharma to someone like Minamoto Kiyomoto?”

Itomi Sayaka knew that she was thinking of her brother again, so she put away her own sorrow and comforted her with a smile:

“The Buddha is also just a cultivator with a high level of cultivation. In this world, only we can save ourselves.”

“Yes,” Hanyu Chika also laughed. “There is no Buddha in this world, because I will kill a Buddha later.”

After Minamoto Kiyomoto received Shakyamuni’s “recognition,” many cultivators believed that he might become a living Buddha in the future.

“If Minamoto Kiyomoto is really in danger, those two people will definitely make a move. You have to be careful,” Itomi Sayaka reminded her with concern.

“Yes,” Hanyu Chika nodded lightly, but her eyes were burning with hatred.

“Also, Minamoto Kiyomoto was able to obtain the ‘Mahavairocana Sutra,’ which proves that he…”

“Alright, alright,” Hanyu Chika pulled her. “I know. Let’s go quickly. Yuko and the others are still waiting.”

Itomi Sayaka glanced at her, sighed, and said, “Okay, let’s go.”

The interior of the Great Buddha of Kamakura was hollow. Usually, one could go in and visit by paying an extra 20 yen on top of the entrance fee.

But starting from four o’clock today, a sign saying “Under Repair Today” was placed at the back entrance.

The two of them used their divine power. The divine power light on their bodies flickered, and their clothes turned into black women’s business suits, with a white coat over them.

Itomi Sayaka spread her hand, and a water-blue divine power rippled. A white cat-face mask appeared in her hand.

Staring at the mask for a while, she slowly put it on.

The interior of the Great Buddha, which was usually empty, now had a long table and a few chairs.

“Leader!” Everyone in the ninth group stood up.

Itomi Sayaka walked to the head, and Hanyu Chika followed behind her.

Looking down from above, Itomi Sayaka scanned the room. Including herself and the newly joined Yanagi Michiko, there were only nine people.

As cultivators, since they had already joined Shintoism, they were destined to oppose the officials. Few people chose to stay in the ninth group, which had neither high welfare nor the freedom to act as they pleased.

“Everyone, please sit,” she said.

“Yes.”

After sitting down, the atmosphere relaxed.

“Leader, is this Lady Yanagi?” a girl in a plaid skirt and a rabbit mask said.

Itomi Sayaka nodded and said, “The first thing I’ve gathered everyone for today is to introduce Yanagi Michiko.”

Yanagi Michiko was wearing a white dress and a simple white mask that outlined her eyes.

She stood up, bowed to everyone, and then sat back down.

“I didn’t expect our ninth group to have two Kosen-level members!” a man wearing a horse-face mask said.

“In this way, even if we have few people, we can still get a good ranking in the sect’s competition,” the burly man with hair like steel needles and a Buddha mask nodded.

“That’s great! We can get more money and learn more curses!” the girl who had been wearing the rabbit mask at the beginning said happily.

Everyone also became happy.

They just wanted to protect their families, didn’t want to go to the battlefield, and didn’t want to do messy things, but they still longed for money and curses.

If it were before, Itomi Sayaka would also be happy with them, but when she thought of Minamoto Kiyomoto, she couldn’t be happy at all.

“The second thing…” she said faintly.

Everyone quieted down and looked at her.

“Gray Mouse is dead. Because he used divine power, everyone must remember this lesson and be careful.”

“Yes,” they already knew this news.

“I heard that the leader, in order to take revenge, cooperated with the third group and intercepted the ‘Romancecar’ going to Hakone. I wonder if they found the culprit?” the burly man with the Buddha mask asked.

Itomi Sayaka didn’t speak and slowly closed her eyes.

The interior of the Great Buddha fell silent. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what was wrong.

The leader usually had the image of a big sister, always smiling and joking with everyone. Although they couldn’t see her face, the men in the group basically had a good impression of her, and the girls also loved her very much.

“I didn’t find him,” Itomi Sayaka opened her eyes and said without emotion.

“Leader, you don’t have to blame yourself. It has nothing to do with you.”

“That’s right.”

Everyone spoke up to comfort her.

Yanagi Michiko’s clear eyes looked at everyone. The atmosphere of the ninth group was indeed as Sayaka had said. It was more like a group of partners than an organization.

“Everyone, I know who killed Gray Mouse.”

“Who?” Everyone stood up abruptly.

This voice was unfamiliar, and it came from outside the Great Buddha.

Could it be someone from another group of Shintoism?
Yuka, wearing a black butterfly mask, trembled and stood there in a daze.

“What’s wrong? Black Butterfly?” The girl with the rabbit mask noticed her friend’s abnormality and quickly asked.

Yuka came back to her senses and quickly shouted, “Everyone, be careful. It’s the officials…”

Before she could finish her words, the sky and the earth shook. The entire Great Buddha was lifted up and fell into the distance with a loud bang.

All the members of the ninth group were like mice exposed to the light of day, feeling uncomfortable all over.

Opening their eyes and looking around, they didn’t know when the temple had become empty of any tourists.

Several cultivators dressed as if they were from various eras were either standing on the roof of the temple, on the ground, or on the tip of the pagoda, surrounding the nine of them in the center.

None of these people were wearing masks. They were obviously cultivators from the officials who had high strength and status and were not afraid of being exposed.

“The Divine Miko?!” The girl with the rabbit mask screamed.

Everyone looked at the Great Buddha abruptly.

On the back of the fallen Amitabha Buddha, a girl in a blue and white kimono stood there, her face cold and otherworldly, unapproachable. A golden divine power shone like a sea of light.

“That’s… the miko of Ise Shrine!” On the other side, someone else shouted.

Yanagi Michiko’s heart skipped a beat. She looked at the person beside the Divine Miko.

Beside the Divine Miko, a girl in a purplish-red kimono, wearing sunglasses that covered half of her face, was like a fashionable girl, or a noble girl, looking down at the crowd with a smile.

Seeing everyone looking at her, she seemed embarrassed, or as if she found it very fun, and used her fan to cover the corners of her smiling mouth.

Yanagi Michiko’s eyes, under the mask, stared at her without blinking.

“My big sister Izayoi, you almost hit me,” it was the voice from just now.

Yuka trembled all over, bit her lower lip, and clenched her fists.

“Everyone, good after—no, good evening,” in the twilight, a person jumped out from behind the Buddha statue and leaped onto the Buddha statue.

He was also not wearing a mask. He was wearing a white kimono and a black haori. He was handsome, with a tall and straight figure, and a dignified bearing.

He looked down at the Great Buddha and stepped on Amitabha Buddha’s head.

“Amitabha Buddha!” The man with the Buddha mask put his hands together and chanted the Buddha’s name.

Amitabha Tathagata had been exposed to the sun and rain, and the Buddha statue was a little mottled.

Even lying on the ground, with his head stepped on, he still looked down with his eyes, looking at the crowd with a blank expression, quietly watching the changes in human affairs.

“Are you Minamoto Kiyomoto?” The girl with the rabbit mask suddenly shouted.

“Oh?” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked over. “You know me?”

“After Hakone, who in the cultivation world doesn’t know you now?”

“Is that so.”

Yuka felt that Minamoto Kiyomoto seemed to have glanced at her. For some reason, looking at that face, she thought that the heart that had recovered from the betrayal was now hurting like a needle prick.

“How did you find this place?” Itomi Sayaka said in a deep voice.

Minamoto Kiyomoto sized up her figure and said with a smile, “Your legs are nice, and your chest is big. If you’re willing to be my girlfriend, I can tell you.”

“Bastard!”

“How dare you!”

The people from the ninth group all cursed loudly. Only Itomi Sayaka herself was completely unmoved.

Yanagi Michiko looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto, her deer-like eyes flickering twice.

“Do you know who killed my brother?” Hanyu Chika, wearing a calamus flower mask, asked sharply.

“Of course.”

“Wait! Sister Ayame!” The person with the rabbit mask interrupted her and said in a low voice, “Let’s find a way to escape first.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto glanced at this rabbit twice and recognized her voice—the person who had notified Yuka and talked about menstrual pain was her.

The girl with the rabbit mask whispered a few words to Itomi Sayaka.

Itomi Sayaka glanced at Minamoto Kiyomoto and nodded to the girl with the rabbit mask.

The girl with the rabbit mask stepped forward and said loudly, “I heard that the Divine Miko is the most benevolent, and every generation has sacrificed themselves for the world.”

Kamibayashi Miko acted as if it had nothing to do with her.

“I want to ask the Divine Miko,” the rabbit mask said, “our ninth group doesn’t kill people. We just want to protect our families and friends. What did we do wrong? Why do you want to kill us?”

“Shintoism is Shintoism. What reason do you need to kill you?” Minamoto Nagatoku said coldly, his hands behind his back.

“You try,” Itomi Sayaka’s gaze turned to him.

“Leader of the ninth group, your opponent is not us. Naturally, Lady Divine Miko will test your skills,” Minamoto Kiyomi said with a grin.

The rabbit mask still stared at the Divine Miko without moving.

Kamibayashi Miko glanced at Minamoto Kiyomoto.

Minamoto Kiyomoto could only say, “I am the Divine Miko’s spokesperson. If you have anything to say, say it to me.”

“Okay!” The rabbit mask turned to him. “The Divine Miko sacrificed herself to save people. We are also to save people. What did we do wrong? Why do you want to kill us?”

As long as the Divine Miko didn’t make a move, with the leader and Yanagi Michiko on their side, they could retreat completely.

“Isn’t that simple?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said. “Wang Yangming said, ‘With great kindness in one’s heart, one will use any means necessary’.”

“Who is Wang Yangming? I don’t know him!”

“…You haven’t read the ‘Instructions for Practical Living’?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked in disbelief.

“I haven’t!”

“Then let me put it another way, ‘The superior man, in the world, does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow’.”

“What are you blabbering about? Just tell me whether you think we’re right or wrong,” the girl with the rabbit mask asked.

“…Miss Rabbit, you haven’t even read the ‘Analects’?”

“I’ve heard of it. It’s a foreigner’s book. Why should I read it!”

“Then you must have read Ito Jinsai’s ‘Analects of Confucius’ or Ogyu Sorai’s ‘Analects of Confucius’?”

“No!”

“Not to mention whether to kill you or not, and not to mention good and evil, I have a question for you,” he was very puzzled. “You don’t read books. How do you cultivate?”

“How do you cultivate? Why do you need to read books?” The rabbit mask’s tone was a matter of course. What was even more terrifying was that the few people from the ninth group beside her had expressions of agreement.

Minamoto Kiyomoto had wishfully thought that as long as they were cultivators, they would consciously read more books.

He turned his head and said to Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi:
“I’d rather dissect an old man’s corpse in the dissection room than waste time with them here. What about you?”

“I’m not willing to do either,” Kamibayashi Miko replied without thinking.

“I can stay with your corpse for seven days. Other men, forget it,” Himemiya Izayoi said with a smile.

“…You have a point. I was being narrow-minded,” Minamoto Kiyomoto reflected on himself.

“Hey! You haven’t answered us yet. We want to protect our families and live. What’s wrong with that? Are we good or evil!”

Minamoto Kiyomoto turned his head to look at these guys who didn’t even read books.

The two miko and Itomi Sayaka all looked at him, to see what kind of reasoning he could come up with in the face of a person who didn’t read.

“Let me say something you can understand,” Minamoto Kiyomoto sighed. “The world is a jungle where the strong prey on the weak. Those who follow me are good, and those who oppose me are evil. Do you understand?”

(End of Chapter)