Ch.214214 – Dancing with the Devil 3

# 214 – Dancing with the Devil # 3

“It’s crawling with them.”

From my travels abroad, I’ve noticed that Japan has more ghosts than Korea. Perhaps it’s because Shinto, Japan’s indigenous religion, holds a pantheistic belief that spirits exist in all objects and materials.

In this archipelago, spirits could seep into forests, mountains, fields, rocks, flowing rivers, and old objects—which is why this temple was also teeming with ghosts.

“Hey, you’re not Junko.”

“Give us Junko! We need to devour her and achieve transformation!”

“The head is mine!”

These ghosts seemed to be targeting Ms. Junko.

Wondering how I could understand these Japanese ghosts, I decided to test them.

“Ms. Junko is already dead.”

“Liar! We can smell Junko’s scent all over you!”

“If we eat him, we can gain spiritual power equivalent to a hundred years of training!”

“Then this mountain will be ours again!”

I was reminded of Journey to the West, which I’d read long ago—the story of Tang Sanzang traveling west with Sun Wukong to retrieve Buddhist scriptures.

Demons appeared at every turn trying to eat Tang Sanzang for various reasons, while Sun Wukong fought to protect him.

These spirits wanting to eat Ms. Junko seemed similar to those demons. Seeing such malevolent ghosts was refreshing—it had been a while since the Nightmare Corridor.

“I don’t think I’ll feel any guilt turning the likes of you into points.”

The 10,000-hour rule.

They say if someone does something for over 10,000 hours, they reach a certain “domain.” I too had spent countless hours fighting ghosts and eventually acquired a certain “domain.”

“Domain expansion—”

Swoosh.

I stretched my hand forward. Unlike before, I no longer hesitated to take down ghosts that might appear on the first floor of the Nightmare Corridor.

“Boomboo-boompow…!”

Pabat-!

At that moment, Eternity Giganoto-saurus, the eternal dinosaur hiding in my shadow, popped out with a “pat!”

“Aack! A dragon!”

“Run! Run!”

“We’re going to be eaten! We’re going to be eaten!”

Giganoto charged at the ghosts swarming the mountain temple at high speed, and the ghosts had no choice but to scream and flee or be swallowed whole by Giganoto.

“Well, looks like my moment to shine was stolen.”

“Boomboo-boompow-.”

Having eaten its fill of ghosts, Giganoto returned to my shadow.

While Giganoto’s macroscopic size was about that of a small iguana, its microscopic and spiritual size was enormous, like its namesake Giganotosaurus.

It was literally a small dinosaur.

Ghosts at the Corridor’s first floor level were now merely food for Giganoto.

“What’s going on? What happened?”

“Yeongwon, what’s wrong?”

Awakened by the commotion outside, Yang Juhui and Yu Dahui came out to the temple courtyard, rubbing their eyes.

Though it was summer, the night was a bit chilly, and they all adjusted their thin clothes, looking quite grown-up.

Soon, the temple’s owner also came out to meet us.

“What’s all the commotion about?”

How should I explain this?

After pondering for a while, I decided to just gloss over it.

“I think there were some animals. I chased them away. From now on, wild bears in this area will be much less likely to attack people or kill animals.”

Scrape, scrape. Dig, dig.

I dug a hole with my heel, rummaged through my pocket, and buried one of Giganoto’s tails in the hole.

With this tail here, evil spirits and harmful energy wouldn’t dare come near this place.

“This feeling is familiar.”

Whether she believed me or had other thoughts, the female monk’s expression changed in various ways. Under the moonlight, she laughed as if she had gained some insight.

“It reminds me of that day. When Junko danced under the moonlight and patted my head. That day was similar to today.”

Yang Juhui’s grandmother, Ms. Junko, must have been someone who could see and hear things like us. This owner, though a monk, was an ordinary person.

Ms. Junko probably didn’t want to frighten this monk with scary experiences, so she hid the truth and glossed over things like I just did.

“Surely you can see something that I cannot. Junko was the same. Sometimes I wonder and feel envious.”

The monk sat on the wooden porch.

She gazed at the pond shimmering under the moonlight. Where her gaze fell, beautiful flowers were blooming on the water’s surface, creating gentle ripples. They were red flowers.

“Junko often told me about that pond. She said when moonlight reflects on the pond, beautiful red flowers can be seen reflected in it. But that’s impossible.”

“…”

“The soil of this temple is barren and lacks nutrients, making it difficult for flowers to bloom. So there isn’t a single flower in this temple. But Junko really seemed to see flowers…”

“I see.”

“It must have been a lie. To tease young me. Junko was good at lying. She liked to tease people and had many mischievous traits. It must have been that.”

To my eyes, the red flowers reflecting in the pond shone beautifully. Yang Juhui and Yu Dahui could surely see those flowers too.

It was a magnificent sight. I could tell that Junko wanted to show that scenery to her young sister.

# # #

The next day.

When morning came, we decided to investigate the pond. Though calling it an investigation was a bit grand—it just meant Yang Juhui, who was a good swimmer, would dive into the pond and search the bottom.

“The ‘All-Purpose Bag’ really is useful.”

I took out the “All-Purpose Bag” I had purchased for 200P from Squiggly Squigglynoi’s shop not long ago.

This bag looked like a camper’s backpack but actually had the capacity of a small camper van.

It was an upgrade from the “Luxury Bag” that Yang Juhui had obtained and loved before. As Kwon Sua, who loved games, would say, “It’s an inventory!” And that’s exactly how it was used.

“I told you this isn’t necessary. I’m the Little Mermaid of Gaeryong City.”

Yang Juhui grumbled as she put on the scuba gear I pulled from my bag. She seemed confident she could easily investigate the pond without such equipment.

Splash-!

Yang Juhui finally entered the water.

We all watched while eating watermelon given to us by the owner, staying cool in the shade to escape the summer heat.

After about 5 minutes, Yang Juhui resurfaced. She shook off the water and said:

“There’s nothing there.”

“Nothing?”

“Yeah. I looked everywhere, but there’s nothing. Just a clean concrete bottom.”

How could that be? What could be under a concrete floor? While I was deep in thought, the monk, who had watermelon in her mouth, burst into laughter.

Unlike her elegant appearance, she laughed like a mischievous child.

“What’s so funny?”

I asked.

The monk wiped tears from her eyes and covered her mouth with her palm.

“We’ve been fooled. Fooled by Junko. I’ve always wondered what might be at the bottom of that pond and protected this temple all this time. I… Ah… I see…”

The female monk seemed to have realized something.

Her eyes filled with slight disappointment.

“…There was nothing after all.”

For an old, lonely monk, expecting a treasure hidden in that pond must have been a small joy.

But now that she knew there was only concrete at the bottom, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Like children who discover Santa’s secret and grow up, people lose their dreams one by one as they become adults. Becoming an adult meant losing dreams.

But my thoughts were different.

Is this really the end?

Were we all deceived by Junko’s trick, coming all the way to this temple only to find nothing? No, I didn’t think so.

That day.

I sat in the shade of the temple’s porch and had a dream. A dream where I met a woman among brightly shining red flowers. Under the moonlight, she was incredibly fresh.

Even though her clothes were wet and her skin was visible through them, she didn’t care at all.

Rather, like a bold man, she asked:

“Was it you? The one who stole Sato’s doll. Because you stole it, I was wrongly suspected by the girls. Even though I didn’t steal it.”

“…”

“I’m already somewhat ostracized as an outsider. It’s easy to get close to men, but with women, there’s a particularly big wall…”

“…”

“Besides, I didn’t know guys like you also liked dolls. But playing with dolls alone must be boring. Right? Being alone is just lonely.”

“…”

“In that sense, want to play hide-and-seek with me? You hide, and I’ll find you.”

“…”

“If I find you, you’ll tell me your name.”

“…”

Coming and talking as she pleased. Thinking I should teach her a lesson, I hid, and she found me. I was surprised to lose the bet.

“Now, tell me your name.”

Since bets and contracts were absolute, I told her my name. Upon learning my name, she laughed loudly.

“That’s really your name? What kind of name is that? It’s funny. Cute!”

“…”

What expression did I have then?

Was I angry at being teased?

No, because her smile was so beautiful, I…

“Now it’s your turn to find me. If you find me, I’ll give your name back. But if you can’t find me, you must return that doll.”

“…”

From then on, I searched many places for her. Mountains, forests, fields, seas, under small rocks, and much time passed.

The bet transformed, and smiles turned to anger.

“You deceived me.”

“Give me back my name.”

I hated her.

And then I woke up.

“Was it a dream?”

Whose memory was that just now?

But I could understand exactly why we couldn’t find anything at the bottom of the pond.

“Junko hid the treasure in the ‘Night Pond.’ The pond where red flowers bloom abundantly. Junko jumped into the night pond, and that’s why she was soaking wet.”

I went out to the yard.

Red flowers were still in full bloom in the pond under the moonlight.

I could recognize that the space reflected on the water’s surface was another world, like the “Nightmare Corridor.” Without hesitation, I jumped toward that dreamlike place.

Splash-!

As I was thinking how refreshing the cold water felt, I experienced an irresistibly strong sensation of rising. When I came to my senses, I had emerged outside the pond.

Turning my head, I saw the temple with red flowers blooming.

And there, I saw a huge furry beast crouching. Its body was as big as a house, and its breath crashed like waves against rocks.

The long-tailed beast asked me:

[So you finally found this place.]

“It was your dream.”

I could recognize that this enormous beast was the woman who visited Yang Juhui’s hair salon every day to get her hair cut.

A demon dwelled in this temple where red flowers bloomed. There was also a demon in the temple located on the third floor of the Nightmare Corridor.

It occurred to me that perhaps red temples were places meant to seal demons.

“I’ll give your name back now. In return, I’d like you to return that doll to us.”