A Pearl in the Snow Ch. 01

The holy priest dove into the lake and found all of the coins except for one, the coin stamped #9. As the sun set the Oni cackled with glee, he could keep the ninety-nine coins for himself and still eject the Priest and destroy his Temple as his final payment had been incomplete.

Hiraku disagreed; each of the one hundred coins had indeed touched the Oni's hand before he had 'voluntarily discarded them'. The bargain was indeed completed in full. The Oni was howling mad at this, but could see no escape from that trap of logic. The temple was safe and the waters and grounds were no longer his, and he could no longer harm or threaten the Priest on his own holy ground, but he could manage one last inconvenience. Until the very last coin was returned to him, he swore that he would haunt the Temple with mischief and they would enjoy no good fortune from that day onwards. With a laugh, the Oni disappeared.

Hiraku's health was no longer hale and hearty after his long years of hard labor in the mine, and he entreated his young followers to search for the missing coin, but it was never to be found. Resigned, Hiraku spent his remaining years meditating by the pond and shortly before his death he imparted to his followers upon his deathbed to never again search for the coin, as a water spirit had told him that someday it would reappear and "fall right into their lap without their effort".

These teachings passed through to their succeeding generations of young priests until they seemed as but myth and legend, but true to the Oni's word, the temple had never prospered or enjoyed 'good luck'.

Until this very morning, when that long missing #9 coin was found.

The Head Priest then returned that coin to me, as I had been its lucky finder. It was rectangular and covered on both sides with Shinto symbols and stamped with the #9 symbol at the top, next to a small round hole that was used to thread money on strings in those days. It wasn't too heavy, being about an ounce or so, and the Head Priest suggested to me that it would make an excellent necklace to wear and it would almost certainly bring me nothing but exceptional good luck for the future. Of the priest we had seen last night? He was certainly not one of the three priests who lived at this temple, nor was any 'wild man' or local resident angry with anyone at the temple.

The alternate explanation was obvious and unspoken. We had seen Hiraku's ghost and when I had thrown the coin it bounced off of the Oni, falling through his startled fingers, thus he had once again rejected his final payment and it had, as predicted, fallen right into the lap of the holy man. Foiled forever, the Oni was now stripped of all of his power over the Temple. He and his curse were now banished from these grounds forever.

The Head Priest was most grateful to us, and we were entreated to forever accept this temple and its grounds as if it were our own home, and we were to be always to be welcomed with open arms there. Yes, that most certainly included any future late night (or daytime) bathing we might desire. This was heady stuff, and it took the two of us quite some length of time to understand and fully accept what had happened.