The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 70 Urban Legend Part 3 ()

On the dimly lit street, the three members of the Supernatural Club were waiting boredly for Qian Xiaoyi and Inuyama Heita to return. Since Qian Xiaoyi was not here, they began to discuss the topic about Qian Xiaoyi.

"Hey, Minister." Sato was quite distrustful of Qian Xiaoyi's appearance: "Is that guy really an exorcist? He is completely different from the one on TV, right? How can he look like a real exorcist? He looks like a complete liar."

The slightly fat female member agreed: "That's right, that's right. Director, you've been deceived again, right? How many times has this happened?"

Kawasaki explained anxiously, "No, you have to believe me. Teacher Qian is a real exorcist! Didn't I show you everything? Regarding the Lucky Mutual Aid Society in the newspaper, he is the righteous Taoist priest!"

Sato said, "But the newspaper you showed us only said that it was reported by enthusiastic citizens, and his name didn't appear, nor did he mention a Taoist priest or anything like that. So no matter how you look at it, it's suspicious. Who told you that he was that person? Even if he really existed, maybe he was pretending to be that person?"

"Suzuki told me!" Kawasaki defended, "She was one of the victims of that cult."

"Oh?" The slightly plump female member narrowed her eyes. "So, it's just her own opinion? What if she is in league with that guy? She left early, and she doesn't look like she's interested in the activities of the Psychic Department. What if she joined the department on purpose to set a trap for you, the Director?"

"Impossible! Suzuki is not that kind of person." Kawasaki shook his head. "And Mr. Qian is not like those scammers who wanted to cheat me of my money. I begged him for a long time before he reluctantly agreed! If he is a scammer, how could this be possible?"

"Alas... this guy was completely deceived..." The slightly fat female member shook her head helplessly, looked at Sato, and stopped persuading him.

Sato was too lazy to say anything more, since he wasn't the one being deceived anyway. So he changed the subject and said, "By the way, how long do we have to wait? What on earth are Inuyama and that guy doing?"

Kawasaki looked at the time and said, "It's only been ten minutes. Maybe they are already on their way back. Let's wait for them?"

"But this is boring~ not exciting at all." Sato said: "It's not as fun as before. It's too inefficient to go one by one, right?"

Kawasaki said: "But it's safer this way. With Teacher Qian watching over us, nothing will happen to us."

"Are you still believing in that foreigner?" Sato said disdainfully: "He's just a liar who came to Japan to cheat people out of money! Anyway, I can't wait any longer. I'm going to find the slit-mouthed woman first. You guys just wait. Ha, what a shitty Taoist priest? This is Japan. Even if he really is an exorcist, he should be an Onmyoji, right?" He left cursing.

"Hey, Sato!" Kawasaki was about to stop him, but Sato had already walked away quickly. Behind him, a slightly fat female member pulled Kawasaki and said with a slightly red face: "Um... Director, don't leave me alone, I'm scared..."

Kawasaki: “…” I really want to catch up.

A street away, in response to Inuyama Heita's question, Qian Xiaoyi thought for a while and then said, "I roughly know why others got into trouble, but not Kawasaki."

Inuyama Heita looked at Qian Xiaoyi curiously: "Why?"

Qian Xiaoyi explained: "Because of the characteristics of urban legends~ I don't know about the monsters born in urban legends, so I didn't think of it before, but now I can probably guess it if I think about it carefully. The so-called urban legends are originally the common cognition created by word of mouth, and then some emotions are drawn from this cognition. And the emotion that is usually drawn is fear."

Qian Xiaoyi paused, organized his words, and continued, "I misjudged Kawasaki. I thought he was just a middle school idiot... No, he's still a middle school idiot, but he has a set of research on urban legend culture. With his rich experience in committing suicide, he can extract various elements that attract urban legends from various true and false information, and then customize effective plans. For example, the slit-mouthed woman we have been looking for, I originally thought that the slit-mouthed woman would have her own territory like the ghost taxi, and would only appear in a fixed ghost domain, but it turned out not to be the case at all. The slit-mouthed woman should be a special ghost that can appear in any place that meets the conditions. She will not stick to the region. As long as the time, environment, identity, number of people, and the most important emotion of fear are met as a mark, then she will create a new ghost domain and appear in front of the target."

"What about Kawasaki?" Inuyama Heita asked, "Since his plan to find ghosts is so effective, why hasn't anything happened to him?"

"Kawasaki is the one who organizes every event. He is undoubtedly very passionate about these things." Qian Xiaoyi said: "The fundamental purpose of his search for ghosts is not to seek excitement, but to gain attention and achievement. It is extremely utilitarian, so even if there is fear in his heart, it will be temporarily suppressed by these utilitarian ideas. The other members who joined the supernatural department are different. Many of them are just playing around and just want to find excitement. They are not so keen on finding evidence of the existence of ghosts. This also leads to the fact that they will become afraid before Kawasaki during the supernatural rituals."

Inuyama Heita understood: "I think I understand! Just like a lightning rod, lightning will first be attracted to the highest metal and strike there. And Kawasaki is like a building surrounded by lightning rods. As long as there are lightning rods around him, he will not be the first to suffer. And once someone really encounters a supernatural event, it will inevitably alert other people, and the event will end... In other words, Kawasaki has been using others as a shield without knowing it! That's why there are fewer and fewer people in the supernatural department, which has also led to many people experiencing supernatural events during activities, but he has never encountered one..."

"So, this guy is a troublemaker. If he encounters a more powerful thing, he might lead a group of people to be wiped out." Qian Xiaoyi smiled and said, "But it doesn't matter. Now that I am here, I will not let this guy cause trouble again..."

"Hey! Brother Yi! Something terrible has happened!" Ajian's head popped out from the corner of the street and he shouted in fear: "I just felt a ghost area forming nearby! There is a strong evil thought coming from it, and that woman has really appeared!"

"What?!" Qian Xiaoyi was shocked: "Didn't I tell them to stay where they are and not go anywhere? Have these idiots never seen a horror movie?" He took out the compass and saw that the compass needle was spinning wildly, then pointing in a certain direction and shaking continuously.

(End of this chapter)