7.0 The Bodhisattva of Mercy Tears It Up Part 1

The Kannon before them didn’t resemble the exaggerated style of the usual depictions, but the statue on Takuto‘s scroll looked exactly like them. It was honestly one of the most gorgeous statues Junna had ever seen and they actually liked the usual old Buddhist art well enough. Kannon—or Guānyīn, as they were referred to in China—was a well known entity even to the average agnostic or atheist Japanese person. Numerous famous temples, including the massive and popular Sensōji in Asakusa, were dedicated to her. There was a 1,300 year old pilgrimage specifically for visiting 33 of the most famous temples of Kannon in the country.

“Wait, what the heck is a shi-an? I thought Kannon was a bosatsu?”

Or, a bodhisattva in… what language? Junna could only identify it by sight in English, not pronounce it out loud.

Takuto rolled his eyes. “A xiān is a Daoist immortal. There’s no reason those two things are mutually exclusive. Bosatsu are just enlightened people who hold off on becoming full buddha so they can stay and guide others. Xiān can reach immortality in other ways, but they also usually have to reach some kind of enlightenment.”

“Same result, different methods,” Shigoro mused. “I didn’t know Kannon-sama was supposed to be so good with a sword though.”

Historically, she wasn’t, and all three of them knew that. Morbid fascination took over as they watched this being of mercy and compassion easily cut through the biker aberrations that had been an even match for the three of them moments ago.

Tempted to give them a hand (and possibly by some desire to show off in front of a powerful entity, or prove they were useful and on the same side), Junna made a quick beckoning motion. The sitting corpses clambered to their feet, each one radiating a visible black aura of negative energy. Where it had been floating in nebulous clouds before, it now poured out of every orifice, moldy black from eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

Kannon abruptly stopped their battle-dance around the abandoned intersection. They tore off their almost shredded jacket; glowing white bands unraveled from around their left arm and shot out to latch around both arms of every corpse, and then both of Junna’s arms as well. Junna’s mouth fell open.

“Again, please do NOT do that,” they said, this time making direct eye contact with Junna. Their eyes flashed gold. Junna had the distinct feeling they were close to invoking the wrath of heaven.

Crap, was Doikawa right about heavenly agents?!

“Better stay out of their way, Sagyo. Most practitioners of supernatural arts don’t like when you mess with the dead,” Takuto warned. He straightened up and folded his arms across his chest. “They could probably kill all of us by blinking, they’re being nice by keeping us out of the fight.”

“Jun, maybe they’ll bless you with their holy powers and purify your soul once they’re finished with this!” Shigoro snickered.

“Were you born this annoying?” Normally Junna ignored Shigoro’s nasty remarks, but they felt… targeted. Like they’d gotten caught doing something wrong.

Suddenly, Kannon’s glowing ropes (or were they ribbons? The material was difficult to identify, cool to the touch, no give or stretch, and from a brush against Junna’s fingertips, smooth like silk) shot out and wrapped Takuto and Shigoro so their arms were pinned to their sides.

“HA!” Junna would have pointed as they laughed if they were able. Shigoro let out a whining sigh and Takuto looked absolutely livid.

“This spiritual weapon is insane—do you feel that power?” he asked Shigoro through his teeth.

“Awww, I can’t move at all! Why do they have two spiritual weapons?! One should be hard enough to use!”

Junna didn’t know what Takuto or Shigoro meant specifically by ‘spiritual weapon,’ although it was clear the weapons manifested by this Kannon were far from normal. The bands almost had the auras of something alive...

“As if they even need one.”

Junna was familiar with the visual effect where an object or person cut extremely quickly with an extremely sharp blade would hold together before dramatically falling apart. They had seen it in anime, but never performed in real life. Even with the abilities that could be granted with supernatural aid, this was quite the feat. The final two bikers skidded to a sideways stop and tried to spin around to make an escape. Kannon struck with their sword and a few seconds later, four chunks of monstrous biker fell off their vehicles and disintegrated.

Kannon sheathed their long sword in a mysterious pouch that should have been way too small to hold it. The only things left of the biker gang were their bikes, which were starting to run out of gas, sputtering uselessly as their ghostly blue headlights faded.

Finally, the Kannon-who-was-also-a-genius-in-battle tugged at their rope-like spiritual weapon and released all their captives, living and dead. While Junna, Takuto, and Shigoro shook out their limbs and dusted themselves off, Kannon walked to each of the possessed corpses and said a prayer over them. The ghosts were released, dispersing into motes of pale blue light. Kannon carefully straightened each body lying on the ground, folding their arms over their chests.

“You know, I could do that… I don’t just keep spirits down here for fun…” Junna objected weakly. “Like, I was planning to exorcize them, that’s actually what I do for a living.”

“After you use them for your own wishes?”

“How are you doing that?” Junna could almost read the immortal’s speech in the air. There was no way to describe it other than their Japanese was too perfect. Their face was too perfect: the symmetry, the proportions, the clear skin, the peach blossom-shaped gold eyes… “And no, not my own wishes! Allowing a ghost vengeance is the quickest way to put it to rest. They get revenge, they pass on peacefully. The dead rest in peace, no one else has to die.”

“What… am I doing?” The immortal raised an eyebrow, genuinely looking confused by Junna’s first question. They bent down to pick up their discarded jacket and even managed to find their ancient baseball cap, though they didn’t put either back on.

“Your Japanese is very good,” Takuto offered in Junna’s place. “I’m interested to know what Kannon-sama is doing in Tokyo.”

“I’m not actually Kannon. Or Guānyīn. I know of the statues that resemble me... There aren’t even that many…” They looked almost flustered, their glowing skin glowing pinker by the second. “And there shouldn’t be any in this country, just around Shaanxi province… oh, but maybe by now they’ve been moved somewhere else, it’s been so long…”

“So then what, some mortals mistook you for the actual Guānyīn at some point?” Takuto pressed. “There’s a real one aside from you?”

“I have briefly met Avolokitasvara…”

“Ah, yeah, the original concept, from India. Meaning you inspired the figure of Guānyīn that split off from that guy when Buddhism moved to China, I’m assuming. So you also predate Japan’s concept of Kannon by a stupid amount of time.”

“Guānyīn” slowly looked in the opposite direction.

“It’s possible, I suppose… but I don’t think…I’m actually daoist, you know…”

“Okay but how old are you?” Shigoro eagerly interjected. Junna cringed; he and Takuto were circling like sharks around a giant bleeding tuna.

“... I began cultivating during what is now referred to as the Shang Dynasty…”

“What the fuck, that’s insane.” Takuto interrupted them immediately. “You’re Guānyīn. Bullshit, some of the statues ‘resemble you,’ you’re like three thousand years old!”

“Hey, when is the Shang Dynasty?” Junna whispered to Shigoro. “Is that like, around the Yayoi period?”

“Uh. try like… at least eight hundred years earlier than that, if not over a thousand. The Shang Dynasty ended a few hundred years before the Yayoi period. Like uh… 1600 to 1000 BCE. Yayoi Period was 200 BCE to around 200 CE. Did you even pay attention in history class?”

“Japanese history! The Yayoi Period ended closer to 300 CE, by the way. You want me to remember Chinese dynasties? How is that useful in my line of work?”

“We’re using it right now!”

He had them there. But Junna had never, ever heard of a living human reaching an age of over even two hundred years, and the cases that were known to be true in the occult world could be counted on one hand. It just wasn’t something humans did, at least not anymore. Whether they coveted immortality or not, humanity didn’t have it.

And yet.

“You’re seriously immortal?” Junna blurted out before Takuto could even speak. “You were a human being and you became immortal? Is that why you have gold eyes?”

There was something about it that Junna just couldn’t comprehend, let alone accept. As someone who was obsessed with the boundary between life and death, seeing someone—a living human being—who had been alive longer than most kami shook them to their core. Their heart raced. The aura of this person was so restrained, as if unleashing the smallest amount more than intended would drown everything from their feet to the horizon. Gods had that power, though never nearly as carefully contained. Just existing in the world must have been like handling every living thing as if it was as delicate as a butterfly and every object like it was made of glass and shoji paper.

But here not-Kannon was, wandering the streets of Tokyo, defeating evil spirits that couldn’t have been more dangerous to them than fruit flies and releasing the souls of a handful of humans that to them, only had the life spans of fruit flies.

What the hell did that feel like? They really were a Bodhisattva if they were still in the moral realm after all that time. That or they just didn’t know how to die.

A single nasty thought scurried across Junna’s mind like a centipede: Yeah, right. I bet you’ve wished you could die more than once, too.

“I—” Guānyīn looked like they were a deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming Kei truck. Junna realized they’d be staring a little too intensely when they fired off all their questions.

“Sagyo, shut up.” Takuto cut them off from asking any more. “I want to know what they’re up to.”