flstandardbreds Chapter 416 Heianjing
Chapter 416 Heianjing
Note: There is too little description about Ryomen Sukuna's life in the original work. The content of this chapter is all made up by me based on my guesses. Please correct me if there are any unreasonable parts.
Heian Jing.
Night falls.
In the evening, every household lights up the family crest lanterns at the door, burns hemp sticks in the courtyard and at the entrance, and offerings have already been placed on the Buddhist shrines and the spirit-welcoming shed, waiting for the spirits of the ancestors to enjoy them before seeing them off.
After the festival, people carry lanterns, walk out of their homes and head towards the streets or temples, singing and dancing to the Obon Odori.
Today is the last day of the Obon Festival.
Yulan means "to relieve the suffering of hanging upside down", and the name was given to relieve the suffering of living beings. Legend has it that it originated from the Buddha's disciple Maudgalyayana who found his biological mother suffering in hell, so he collected fruits and vegetables to offer as sacrifices to save his mother.
If a person falls into the realm of hungry ghosts after death, he will suffer extreme pain and find it difficult to escape. He must put the five fruits in a bowl and feed them until his hunger is eliminated. Only then can he escape from the sea of suffering and be reborn.
It is the most important festival in summer, and this year's Obon Festival is even more special.
It was treated as a top priority even more important than the succession of the throne.
At the beginning of the year, due to a natural disaster, plague was rampant inside and outside Kyoto. From peddlers and common people to princes, nobles and high-ranking officials, everyone was infected with a strange disease.
They couldn't eat any food.
Even if their stomachs are empty, hunger spreads inside their bodies like fire, veins bulge on their arms, they look haggard and emaciated. However, as long as food is placed in front of them, they will vomit blood continuously, holding their stomachs in pain, and will not stop until the moment of death.
The number of people who have died from hunger strike is no less than a hundred.
Seiwa Genji was ordered to find a solution to the epidemic.
He visited the homes of the two great Onmyojis, Ashiya Doman and Abe Haruaki, and the answer he got was always that this was a punishment from heaven.
At some point this year, ghosts who have fallen into the hungry ghost realm will be reborn in Heian-kyo.
As a symbol of ominousness and disaster, he will bring about a bloody storm in a few years, and no one can stop him.
By then, not just a hundred people, but tens of thousands of people will be shrouded in shadow and become sacrifices to ghosts and gods. This plague is just a harbinger of all disasters to come.
Things have come to this, and the only solution now is to prepare fruits and vegetables, burn incense and offer sacrifices, kowtow and bow, and feed all the hungry ghosts encountered on the road on the day of the Ullambana Festival. Maybe there will be a glimmer of hope.
The etiquette must not be missed, the number cannot be too much or too little, and after successfully sending away all the hungry ghosts, the ghosts and gods will also leave and wait for the next opportunity to reincarnate.
However, this is where the problem lies.
When asked how much food should be prepared on the Obon Festival, Ashiya Doman and Abe Haruaki had a huge disagreement.
Ashiya Doman counted only 108 hungry ghosts, but Abe Haruaki, whose spiritual power was greater than his, counted 109 hungry ghosts, two of whom would be born as twin brothers.
The two people were arguing and couldn't tell who was right and who was wrong.
Therefore, on the day of Obon, in order to ensure that nothing unexpected happened, Genji decided to dispatch his eldest son Minamoto no Raikou and second son Minamoto no Raihei to follow the orders of the two great Onmyojis and set out from the left and right sides of the imperial city to hold the ceremony at the same time.
At the moment they were getting ready to go, the watchtowers in the south and north of the city rang six times at the same time, marking the hour of Xu.
The Five Mountains Fire-Sending Ceremony was declared to have begun, and all the bonfires around the mountains of Kyoto were prepared.
Common people, merchants, noble ladies and noble gentlemen gathered along the Kamo River to watch. A huge Chinese character "大" appeared on the Ruyi Mountain. In an instant, the lights that were lit at the same time illuminated the entire sky, winning cheers and applause.
At the same time, in Heian-kyo Castle, the team led by Minamoto no Yorihei was bowing and kneeling, and just happened to pass by the door of a house.
The panicked servants came in one after another, breaking up the originally neat team and the food in the basins. Minamoto no Yorihei stopped to ask, and the reason was that a meteorite fell from the sky in the backyard of the mansion, creating an extremely large pit.
The pregnant lady in the family was frightened, her amniotic fluid broke, she gave birth prematurely before her due date, and there were signs of a difficult labor.
However, today is Obon, and the streets are crowded. They were rushing out and collided with Minamoto no Yorihei's team.
The leading woman knelt before Minamoto no Yorihira and begged him to give her a horse so that they could rush to the clinic in time to find someone to deliver the baby for their wife, but Minamoto no Yorihira flatly refused.
"I have already wasted a lot of time because of you." He said, "I have more important things to do, which concern the lives of tens of millions of people. It is not comparable to a pregnant woman in your family and the child in her belly."
After saying this, he reorganized his team, led his servants, and continued to head to the outskirts of Heian-kyo City, carrying 109 packages of fruits and vegetables.
An hour later, Minamoto no Yorihira arrived at the location as instructed by Abe Haruaki and reunited with his half brother Minamoto no Yorimitsu.
However, just before the sacrifice began, Minamoto no Raikou discovered that one of the servants in Minamoto no Raihei's team had only half of the food left.
"He must have been knocked out at the door of that family." Minamoto Yorihei explained in annoyance, "Something unexpected happened in their family. A woman was about to give birth prematurely, so this happened."
Abe Haruaki, who was present, looked at the happy Ashiya Doman, raised his head to the sky and sighed, saying: "This time, I can only hope that you are right and I am the one who made a mistake."
At the same time, in Heian-kyō, a lady who lacked medical assistance, was on the brink of life and death and in great pain, finally gave birth to the first child of her life after a long struggle.
This child had two faces on its head, four arms, and was born with four pairs of eyes. The moment they opened, a fierce red light shone out, scaring the two doctors who came to deliver the baby to death.
At this time, he didn't have a name yet.
However, in the future Heian-kyo era, he had a title that was respected, feared, dreaded, disgusted, hated, and cursed by the world.
Its name is - Ryomen Sukuna.