Seen Through the Eyes of Goodwill

Chapter- 14

Chapter- 14

(Ichinose's POV)

We had free time to spare in our room, thus an odd gathering took place. Four girls including me sat in a relaxed posture trying to figure out the working of the exam.

Shiina-san seemed to be genuinely interested in the material school had provided us, while Ibuki-san scratched her head with visible confusion.

"Mii-chan, what do they mean by Koan introspection here?" I asked her with an inquisitive gaze.

After thinking for a moment she put her index finger on her lip and looked at the ceiling. It appears that it is something hard to define.

"Zen riddles, might be the term you're thinking of," Shiina-san said in a soft voice.

"Yes! Zen riddles. They're used to test the progress of students in Zazen." Mii-chan exclaimed.

"Do you know the answer to these? Most of them seem to have Chinese origin." I tilted my head at the sight of senseless questions that stared back at me. Mii-chan shares Chinese origin. Hopefully she can help us get through this.

"Well... about that, I might know a few but most of them seem new to me." She admitted, a little disappointed in herself.

The four of us silently stared at each other. Ibuki-san usually prefers to be alone, but she is sticking with us for some unknown reason. Anyways, it will help the group if she can alleviate her performance when it comes to the theory of Zazen, since the instructor has been having a lot of back and forth with her regarding that matter.

"Ibuki-san, I was planning to discuss a few of these questions. You won't mind if we start from you?"

"Eh, leave me out." She tried to escape.

"Thing is that our classroom has several cameras in there. As Sakayanagi-san said earlier, there is a good chance that our daily behaviour is being evaluated." I didn't point to it directly, but Ibuki-san understood that her lack of interest was hindering the progress of our group.

"Uhh, alright, just sound sane," she said resignedly.

"Nice!" I clapped both of my hands, gathering their attention for what was to come.

"Let's start with classical one: 'What is Buddha?'"

"'This mind is Buddha.'"

"Flax seed."

"Dried Dung."

All three of them answered.

"......" Where did I go wrong?

Following the silence, I turned the page to look at the answer for the same question.

"Why do all your answers match to these. ...?" I asked in a lost manner. Just what becomes of a person at the end of Zazen?

"Hehe, I told you I am listening to the lessons." Ibuki-san smirked.

Her answer seemed to be more of a coincidence than a well thought out one, but who am I to question it if the great monk Ummon reached the same conclusion.

"Umm, we got the right answers so nothing to be worried about." Mii-chan concluded.

"I will try asking the next one." She announced happily flipping the pages.

She recited.

[A/n: Now's your chance folks try answering]

"Answer and die, at least you will die winning." Ibuki answered.