Spiritual forces and the unfathomable wisdom of the universe is not meant for mankind to understand. Furyo wakes up under a bridge. He is surrounded by the luminous eyes of stray cats. A deep chorus of intolerance comes from the horde of cats. They sense he is no longer of this world and want him out of their refuge, this is the domain of the living and they want no feral ghouls to disturb their placid sanctuary beside the river. Furyo almost bursts into tears, was it all a horrible dream? He feels the staples in his face and pain when he breathes and knows what ever it was, it was not a dream. Furyo’s body washed up in this place, among tents of the homeless, rotting animals and unmarked graves of the unloved. The air smells clean and despite the heavy weight his spirit carries he feels blessed.
He stumbles up to a campfire where hunched over winos have forgotten an improvised grill made from a shopping cart filled with local fish. Furyo hungrily tears into the fresh fish, making so much noise the winos wake in alarm screaming at him. He hands over a wad of wet bills and they are all friends again. Furyo warms his newly mended bones, his clothes and walks up the embankment to the road. Like a wraith from a dream, Angelina stands with a knowing smile and with her Tenshin Tengu wings tucked inside her clothes. She has brought him a bag of clean clothes and right there on the side of the highway he strips down and puts on a new outfit. Looking truly like Devil Furyo, the dangerous killer returned to life. Furyo marvels a graffiti mural in a memory of childhood. Buddha tempted under the tree of wisdom, by the king of the undead.
Furyo tries to walk but some deep rooted trauma blinds him. He feels a story being narrated to him by a ghostly voice. “Once in ancient India, high the mountains. The Buddha sought out a place to meditate after months of a long journey. He came to a great tree where all the masters of wisdom and spiritual thought also ended their journeys. This was a place where the seekers of enlightenment stayed forever, until their bodies became one with the tree. Among the roots and branches were hundreds of mummified monks who meditated and gave up food until they reached a state of bliss. This is also where the great demon Mara waited to tempt the seekers into indulging in food and wine, earthly thoughts and sexual depravity with his army of female illusions.”
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“Buddha was struggling to maintain his noble path, to remember the virtues to renounce the world, maintain proper conduct, to give charity and act wisely. Buddha wanted to fill his soul and others with kindness, patience, generosity and compassion. Mara was cunning and created psychological games where there was no good choice. Buddha acting with his best judgement but each time felt like he was sacrificing others to make small victories that only made the demon Mara grow stronger with each regret and second guess. As Buddha was eaten alive by insects, violated by feminine demons and haunted by angry ghosts he cried out for some end to his suffering. In this moment, Mara traded the split second of respite of the Buddha for impunity of unclean souls to possess all the wise masters in the tree of wisdom. Spreading a plague on the land that exists to this day, hungry ghosts of the vampires.”
Furyo can feel his skin burning, like molten gold. Lines of Buddhist exorcism prayer burned into his mind like DOS code, burn into his skin like a crucible creating keystrokes for a printing press. His arms, face and chest blistering under intense heat from inside his chest. He screams and tries to rip at his own flesh and bones as the black markings of expulsion prayers, blessings, cleansing and banishment spells circle his body. Creating the armor of god, a ancient system of mysticism used by the monks of his order. Now his body is a weapon in the fight against all parasitic spiritual entities that walk among the realms of men. His hands and feet emblazoned with the holy writ of a thousand generations of exorcists from the mists of prehistory. Mantras, Sutras and esoteric Mudras become as fearsome as his skill in martial arts.