Chapter 8: Midea Rice Cooker

Translator: Larbre Studio  Editor: Larbre Studio

In addition to its anime, comics and games culture, Japan was also world-renowned for the paranormal; haunted cities, creepy forests, all sorts of urban legends and incredible stories. The Japanese were a society that worshipped ghosts.

Holding an annual National Ghost Summit, groups from all over the country would put on live performances under the theme of “local ghost stories” in a nationally-ranked competition. Such activities preserved Japan’s ghost culture throughout the years.

Even for an island that regarded the hills and seas as being ruled by other-worldly beings, the survival of the paranormal culture to this day is nothing short of intriguing.

Although rational scientific thought would advocate for doing away with supernatural belief, in the eyes of the Japanese, ghosts, and spirits were just as tangible and real as the Earth and stars themselves.

Japan’s reputation for its horror culture peaked as the movie, Ring, terrified audiences across the globe. However, the paranormal was not bound to merely a movie category. As long as ghosts and spirits remained close to humans, hearsay and folklore would keep the notion of the dead, alive.

Kimura Kazuki believed that many paranormal stories were created from the figment of human imagination and experience, seemingly ghostly, but not. Yet, not all accounts were made up blindly. Some of them were real. So then the question was, how can the existence of the paranormal be proven?

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Kazuki did not know.

Naturally, he turned to the most straightforward answer- the internet.

However, Kazuki quickly realized that there was too much information on ghosts online. Most were fake; written to create an air of suspenseful horror. Other than that, the supposed “truth” was only fabricated as promotional gimmicks by those with influence.

Kazuki skimmed past and ignored the locations of Japan’s sacred suicide grounds. As those who commit suicide had no intention to cling onto life, they are assumed to have no fixation.

Without fixation, there could not be any triggering of Worldly Reiki- leading to no formation of ghosts. As such, the common belief of suicide supposedly leading to the creation of ghosts is false.

Before the recuperation of Reiki, there are two types of ghosts.

Evil ghosts and benign or good ghosts.

Evil ghosts are said to be culminations of large amounts of hatred toward certain people or things before their death. While good spirits were characterized by their unwillingness to leave this world due to a deep fixation on certain people or things.

It was no secret that Kazuki was more willing to meet the latter. Even if good ghosts were not necessarily ‘good,’ they were, at the very least, able to communicate with humans clearly, allowing him to understand their requests fully.

However, what bothered Kazuki was the fact that good ghosts were not easy to find, as very few stories are known about them. On the other hand, evil spirits are less hidden.

The search for a good ghost would have to be limited to cases of accidents. This evil ghosts less rare to come by, as long as an eye was kept on criminal investigation cases.

Cases involving murder, domestic abuse, bullying, or debt collection would result in large amounts of hatred, leading to evil ghosts. Luckily, these cases were commonly reported on by news anchors and the media because of the attention they could grab.

Throughout the night, Kazuki filtered through the internet for news on criminal investigation cases. He didn’t restrict his search to within Tokyo.

Though only a sophomore, his status, and good grades in Sakura Kyu wouldn’t make it difficult for him to apply for a couple of weeks leave. As long as he maintained his grades, the Principal could not care less about where he went.

Not even the Dean of Sakura Kyu could discipline him, let alone the students. After all, the student council president was a member of the Sword Believers’ Club.

At midnight, Kazuki concluded his research as his phone ran out of battery. Just after a few hours of sourcing from the internet, he already had a plan.

Akichi High School in the Herian District would be the first site of investigation since it’s the closest. The Herian District was next to the district of Jinwen, roughly 10 minutes of travel by tram.

After a moment of contemplation, Kazuki charged his phone and went to sleep. From what he discovered earlier in the day, he needed a good night’s rest.

The next day, Kazuki got up, took a shower, and gave his teacher a call to take the day off. He left the house soon after but didn’t go directly to Akichi High School.

Instead, he went to the store to buy some brushes and ink, the pharmacy to buy some cinnabar and a shroud shop to get some yellow talisman paper.

Kazuki was going to draw talismans.

The Enchanted Talisman Skill was an ordinary skill that was used during the era of the recuperation of reiki.

Enchanted Talisman Skill, Alchemy, Weapon Refinery and Tactical Formations were the four main sideline occupations after the recuperation of reiki.

Previously, the recuperation of reiki was met with the spread of media, and the rapid progression of humanity.

Many scientists have also immersed themselves in these four sideline occupations, using modern science and technology to study these sideline occupations. Many talented professors would find something new every day.

Before Kazuki’s time-travel, the Midea Group had come up with the Reiki Gathering Formation and had engraved mini formations inside of rice cookers, allowing electricity to trigger the formation. Thus, the rice produced would be filled with reiki and were also delicious to taste, causing even practitioners in isolation to crave for it.

It only took half a year for the Midea Rice Cooker to become the Midea Group’s signature product.

Royalties had to be paid to the Midea Group every time the Reiki Gathering Formation was drawn. The Midea Group, the creator of the formation, was the copyright owner of the formation.

Even though the royalties were of a small sum, but the Reiki Gathering Formation was used by almost all of the practitioners of the world.

Drawing up a Reiki Gathering Formation at home would function, but large-scale formations would require the direct assistance of professionals from the Midea Group.

Just like that, the Midea Group were placed top 20 in the world with the creation of the Reiki Gathering Formation.

Kazuki knew how to draw up a miniature Reiki Gathering Formation, but there wasn’t enough reiki in the air, so the formation was virtually useless.

Furthermore, to sustain the formation, energy rocks were required, and all energy rock mines were government-controlled regardless of size, making it hard to obtain. His wallet would run dry in less than an hour.

However, he figured that he could try to re-create a DIY Midea Rice Cooker himself, that would avoid copyright issues. Soon enough, Kazuki arrived home.

He took a quick shower, washing away the heat of the Summer, cleansing his body, face, hands, and heart.

Once everything was in order, Kazuki sat down at his study table, arranged the talisman paper, prepared for was to come and focused his attention to drawing.