Contents

Title
Copyright
Hinobori Observatory
Mary-san's Manor
Karasu Falls
Kibou River
Shiro Peak
Kinbako Temple
Yami Station
Kubinashi Forest
The Springkeeper's Residence
Kuromizu Shrine
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About the Author
 Yamakowa
The Haunting of Mount Yami
Tara A. Devlin
 Yamakowa: The Haunting of Mount Yami
First Edition: October 2021

taraadevlin.com
© 2021 Tara A. Devlin

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any

form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by
U.S. copyright law. Names, characters, businesses, places, events,
locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s
imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
 Hinobori Observatory

“You’ll never find a job studying folklore.” My father said this to me so

many times that the exact inflection he used each and every time
was imprinted in my brain. You’ll never find a job studying folkLORE.
Emphasis on “never,” rising voice on “lore.” It always sounded odd to
me, unnatural, but I guess that was a sign of how angry the whole
idea made him. Like he was expecting me to get a normal job as a
secretary or something, none of this “folklore” business.
I never said anything back to him, and that infuriated him more.
That was exactly why I did it. My mother never said a thing either,
but that was the story of her life. She never spoke out of turn and
was the “perfect wife and mother.” Joke was on him, anyway. I didn’t
want to become a folklorist. Not really. I just liked studying it. I would
concern myself with work later. There was still time to become a
secretary yet, although deep down I highly doubted it. Maybe
working as an attendant at a theme park haunted house or
something was more my style.
And on that note, Yuu and Akira waited near their car at the
bottom of Mount Yami, each with a cigarette in hand that they put out
when they saw me approaching. I hated the smell of the stuff and
they were always kind enough not to do it near me. Akira smiled and
raised his chin in greeting. Yuu grinned, but otherwise didn’t move.
My two best friends since we were children. Everyone always joked
I’d end up marrying one of them, or maybe even both. It was nothing
like that. They were like my brothers, and the idea of dating one of
them held the same appeal as dating my real brother. Gross.
“‘Sup?” Akira said as I approached the car. Both he and Yuu
were studying to be geographers, whatever that meant, but they held
a special interest in mountains and, combined with my love of
exploring old places, we visited a lot of them together. It was always
the three of us, but with graduation approaching in a year, where
would that leave us? Would we inevitably drift apart, as people were
wont to do, or would we be hanging out in the old people’s home
together like nothing had ever changed?
 “So we’re checking out Hinobori Observatory today, huh?” I
replied. Yuu stretched and then folded his lanky body back into the
car without a word. He never was a man of many words.
“Sure are. You checked this one out, right?” Akira asked.
“What do you think?”
“Sweet. Tell us about it on the way up.”
Akira and I both got into the car and Yuu set off. The roads
were narrow and treacherous. Few cars went up Mount Yami these
days; not since a typhoon tore through the area well over 50 years
earlier and basically destroyed all life on it. Landslides, floods, cave-
ins, the whole shebang. A once small but thriving civilisation on the
mountain wiped out in an instant. Nobody ever tried to rebuild, and
now the entire mountain was, in many cases, a literal shell of its
former self.
“Alright, so as you no doubt already know, the observatory was
built nearly 100 years ago. There are no records of the exact date,
but at this point that doesn’t matter.”
Yuu turned a sharp corner a little too fast, and I grabbed the
handle to stop from falling over. I could see him grinning in the rear-
view mirror. Asshole.
“…Anyway. The observatory is just that. An observatory. It
wasn’t used for anything special, just a way to get nice and high on
the mountain and overlook the forest and bay below.”
“Uh huh,” Akira chimed in. “Sounds… kinda boring, actually. I
thought it was haunted?”
“Seeing as it was built 100 years ago,” I continued, ignoring
him, “it doesn’t have any electricity running through it. It’s an old
stone building with a spiral staircase in the centre and a few sets of
windows. That’s it. At the top is the observatory platform allowing a
360-degree view of the area, but word is that the forest has grown so
wild around it that you can only really see the bay these days.”
“And what about the ghosts?” Akira asked. That was all he was
ever interested in…
“Well, on that front I could only find as much as you, I’m sure.
There are persistent rumours of a girl with a broken neck. She’s
usually seen hanging around the observation deck, but has also
been seen at the bottom of the stairs, and in rare cases, plunging
from the outside down below. This is especially perplexing because
there’s no way to reach the outside from the observation deck, so
how could she fall from it?”
Yuu said nothing, but Akira’s face lit up and he turned back to
look at me. Nothing fired him up like a good ghost story. “Well, she’s
a ghost! They don’t follow the laws of physics, you know. If she
wants to pass through a wall, then I’m sure she can pass through a
wall!”
“But ghosts are said to repeat the actions leading up to their
death, so if the reports are true—which I don’t believe, by the way—
then that would suggest that she plunged to her death from the
observation platform, on the inside, to the ground on the outside.
What, you’re saying she just phased through the wall?”
A folklorist who didn’t believe in ghosts. It didn’t make sense to
me either, but healthy scepticism was good in this particular field,
was it not?
Yuu turned another corner a little too abruptly and both Akira
and I slammed into the car doors again.
“Sorry…” he muttered, but again I could see the grin on his
face.
“Try not to kill us before we get there, yeah?” Akira grumbled.
“Alright, so, that’s it?”
“That’s it. Regarding the ghost, anyway. You’ve probably heard
more stories than I have on that front, but I did dig up something that
I think you’ll find especially interesting.”
Akira’s eyes lit up, like actual sparkles going off in them. “That’s
why I love you,” he would always say at times like this. I had a knack
for digging up the hidden histories nobody else could be bothered to
find. It wasn’t that hard, really. You just had to look past internet
bulletin boards and occasionally head into a real library or two.
“What? What?”
“It took a little digging and several visits to a library I think
hadn’t been used in years, but I found a book detailing some of the
older customs on Mount Yami.”
“And? And?” His impatience came through in his voice.
 “Well, apparently the shrine maidens that used to live here used
the observatory for a particular ritual.”
Akira’s grin spread from ear to ear. This was what he wanted to
hear.
“Hey, we’re almost there,” Yuu said, and as he turned another
corner—slower this time—a large concrete tower rose ahead of us.
The sun would be setting soon, the perfect time to go exploring a
scary, ruined site, but it would also give us the perfect view of the
sunset over the bay. It was, apparently, one of the most beautiful
sunset spots in the entire country, but few could bring themselves to
go to all the trouble of visiting such a haunted, out of the way spot to
see it. Well, they weren’t university students with an interest in the
occult with too much time on their hands.
“Hold that thought,” Akira said, and as Yuu parked the car in
front of the weathered old building, we stepped out into seemingly
another world. The temperature at the foot of the mountain was
vastly hotter than it was here, and the silence that coated the area
was… eerie. No birds. No insects. Nothing. Just the occasional
rustle of wind through the trees that, yes, had very much grown up
and around the observatory. That part was true. Before long, they’d
swallow it entirely and then there’d be no view of the sunset left at
all. A pity. Sites like this really ought to be preserved, and yet the
local government wanted nothing to do with it. The cost of fixing the
roads and bringing tourism back to the area, at least in the short
term, far outweighed the money it would bring in. It always came
down to money…
“Dude, this is awesome.” Akira couldn’t wipe the grin from his
face. “Come on, tell us the rest at the top!” He didn’t bother to wait
for our answers; Akira ran through the open door and leapt for the
rusty, broken stairs.
“He’s brave…” I said. Yuu let out a small laugh. “Come on, Mr
Strong, Silent Type. Sunset won’t be far off and we’ll have wasted all
that time and your reckless driving if we miss it.”
We followed Akira up the rickety stairs. The stairs themselves
were made of wood, but the spiral frame was metal. This led to a
rusty and rotted combo with the occasional missing plank and at
least half the handrail leading up broken, snapped, or missing
entirely. One wrong move could send your foot plunging through a
plank and then impaling yourself on some rusty metal. Nice. There
were no lights, and the area was rapidly getting darker. The area
was basically a self-contained death trap, and here we were
traversing it of our own free will.
“Yo, they weren’t lying about this place, check it out!” Akira
screamed from the top. Hinobori Observatory. One of the busier
tourist sites back in the day with a history most locals didn’t even
remember. Perhaps, on purpose…
“See!”
Akira pointed to the bay. The sun was beginning to set behind
it, and the water looked oddly… black.
“Huh. They weren’t lying about that either,” I said. Officially, the
bay was known as Kiyomizu Bay. It held some of the clearest water
in the entire country, or so they said. But it had another lesser known
nickname, especially these days. Kuromizu Bay. As the name
suggested, when the sun began to set behind it, the water looked
black, not clear, like the underworld was spilling forth to fill it, just for
a moment, before it retreated again and the clear waters returned.
Maybe the rumours were true…
“Shit, where’s my phone? I need a photo of this!” Akira pulled
his phone out of his pocket and aimed it through the dirty
observatory window. There was no way to open them, and seeing
them firsthand made the rumours of the ghost falling on the outside
of the building even stupider. There was no ladder on the outside of
the observatory. No way to get on the roof. No way to fall from the
outside unless a helicopter or something dropped you off on top of it,
and that seemed unlikely for a ghost who had apparently been
around since long before the typhoon destroyed the area.
The sun got bigger the lower it sank, and the clear waters
turned black. They didn’t really turn black, of course, they just looked
that way. The phenomenon piqued my interest. I’d have to look into
that once I got home. It would explain a lot about the apparent
religious significance of the site.
 “So, what were you saying?” Akira took another photo of the
sun and then turned his head to look at us. Yuu’s mouth dropped at
the same time as mine. Our eyes widened and choked gasps
escaped my throat. Akira frowned and turned back to the windows
overlooking the bay.
“What? Are you guys messing with me?”
No messing. I turned, my neck jolting like a screw being turned
into a socket too tight, and Yuu gulped as our eyes met. He saw it
too. A shadow hurtled past the window towards the ground as Akira
turned around. We rushed for it at the same time and tried to look
down. There was, naturally, nothing there; at least, where we could
see, anyway.
“Gimme that.” I snatched Akira’s phone and swiped through the
last few photos. I stopped on one and handed it to Yuu. His face
went pale and he nodded. I gave it back to Akira and pointed to
something just in front of the sunset. I didn’t have to say anything.
He saw it too.
A face. A girl’s face. Her head, tilted just too far to the right to
be natural, hung down from the top of the observatory window, just
to the left of the setting sun. She was looking right at us as the bay
slowly turned black in the background. Or, she would be, if she had
any eyes. There was nothing there but large, gaping holes.
Akira slowly turned to the windows and then looked down at the
ground. There was nothing out there.
“So, uh, what was it you never finished saying before?” The
words came shakily out of his mouth. The sun had almost reached
the bay, the bottom hovering just slightly above the water. The sky
turned deep orange and red, and a chill settled over the entire
building. Something creaked on the stairs and all three of us turned
to it at the same time. Nothing. Just the wind blowing through an old,
decrepit building.
Right. The shrine maidens. “Well, there wasn’t a whole lot I
could dig up; the shrine maidens that lived on this mountain were
pretty secretive after all. A few people tried to document their lives
and what they did, but they were only allowed to see what the
maidens wanted them to see, you know?”
 Akira’s tense face spoke volumes. Too much talking, get to the
point.
“Right. So anyway, apparently before this place became famous
for the beautiful sunset taking place right before our very eyes, the
shrine maidens also used it for one of their secretive rituals.”
“And what ritual was that?” The sound of Yuu’s voice threw me
for a moment. I hadn’t been expecting him to talk. That shadow
really must have thrown him, too.
“That’s the thing. I don’t know. There were rumours of
something that took place here, but nobody ever saw it. Or, nobody
ever saw it and lived… I dunno…”
The bottom of the sun finally reached the bay and seemed to
melt into it. As it did, the clear waters started to turn dark. The lower
the sun set, the darker the waters went. I could barely believe my
eyes.
“How does it do that?” I muttered.
“Hey! Yo, focus. The shrine maidens.” Akira snapped his fingers
in front of my face a few times. What was supposed to be a fun piece
of lore, something to set the mood, suddenly seemed far more
frightening.
“I just said, I don’t know. Nothing was written on what took
place here, just that people saw the shrine maidens enter, usually
with one or two people in tow, and only the shrine maidens came
out. They could never figure it out. There’s only one way in and out
of this observatory, and that’s the door downstairs.”
At that very moment, the door downstairs slammed shut. The
three of us jumped and Yuu went running before either of us could
stop him. He bounded down the old stairs, leaping down two or three
at a time, and then rushed the door. He slammed straight into it and
then fell hard on his backside.
“What the hell?” He got up and furiously jiggled the handle. “It
won’t open!”
Akira and I looked at each other. The sun had half sunk into the
bay, and the waters looked so dark that no light could escape them.
“I don’t like this…” I said.
 “Yeah, no shit.” Akira followed Yuu, leaping down the stairs and
clutching his phone. That photo of the sunset with the ghostly face in
front of it was still open. I turned to the window again. Kuromizu Bay.
They really weren’t lying. Why wasn’t this more well known? The
sunset itself was famous, but rumours of the black bay were just
that: rumours.
Maybe it didn’t always happen? Maybe the waters only turned
black when certain circumstances had been met, or at particular
times of the year? My heart sank and my stomach churned. That
was it, wasn’t it? The shrine maidens and their mystery ritual here in
the building. It only took place when the waters turned black. They
knew when this would happen and they timed their rituals to coincide
with it.
But what was it? What did they do here?
“Dammit! It won’t open!” Yuu screamed again. It was so odd to
hear him raise his voice. He never raised his voice. Even from the
observation deck I could see sweat beading on his brow. He was
starting to panic.
All three of us fell silent as the sound of drums filled the tower.
Slow, methodical, and distant, yet the sound was getting louder.
Getting closer. Hidden somewhere behind the noise was yet another
sound that also slowly grew more distinct. Human voices.
Whispering… no, not whispering. They were chanting.
“What the fuck?” Akira said this time. I turned towards the
windows and the sky was a shade of red I’d never seen before,
contrasting sharply with the black waters below it. The sun itself was
too bright to look at, but seemed to glow orange like the fires of Hell.
“They’re coming…”
“What’d you say?” Akira screamed from the bottom of the
stairs. My heart pounded and I swallowed, trying to ease my dry
throat. The drums and chanting got louder and louder, and suddenly
there was a scream. It wasn’t me, nor was it Akira or Yuu. A white
shadow plunged over the observatory deck rail to the floor below,
bouncing off the stairs just once before landing with a splat. That
was the only way to describe the awful, wet sound that echoed
throughout the narrow walls.
 Akira and Yuu stood frozen by the door, their eyes glued to the
sight before them. Not a girl this time, but a man. At least, it
appeared to be.
“Run,” the voice croaked. His limbs were bent in unnatural
directions and half his brains splattered across the floor. “They’re
coming. Run.”
My heart skipped a beat. They’re coming. Those same words
had just come from my own mouth and I didn’t know why. Who was
coming? The maidens?
I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Akira bounded up the stairs
as three distinct shapes took form in front of me. Yuu continued
frantically trying to open the door, to no avail, and Akira reached my
side the moment their forms took shape.
Three shrine maidens. At least, that was what I supposed they
had once been. Their eyes had been torn out, replaced with large
gaping black holes. The kosode they wore above their red hakama
wasn’t white, however, but pitch black. Like the waters of the bay
behind us…
“What the fuck?” Akira’s panicked voice filled my ears as he
grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back. I couldn’t tear my eyes
off them. What on earth was going on? The broken neck girl wasn’t
the only ghost haunting the observatory? Why weren’t there rumours
of the maidens as well? And the guy who had jumped over the
edge?
People saw the shrine maidens enter with others, but only the
shrine maidens ever came out. An unpleasant picture was starting to
paint itself. The black waters. The spirits. The locked door. The
drums and chanting. The shrine maidens.
This was it. This was the ritual. We were about to not only see it
with our own eyes… we were about to be participants.
Even in death, the shrine maidens still carried out their duty. I
almost wanted to laugh, but I was too terrified for that.
“Who the fuck are you?” Akira screamed, but it was getting hard
to hear over the rising drums and chanting. The maidens seemed to
shimmer almost. They looked just like real people, in full colour, and
not like ghosts at all… aside from the strange shimmering and
wavering around them.
“What happened to their eyes…?” The words left my lips before
I could stop them. With all the weirdness going on around us… that
was what caught my attention. Their gaping, cavernous eyes. They
seemed to suck me in, dragging me into their vortex. I could not
disobey them because I didn’t want to disobey them. I was caught in
their eyeless gaze, and the three of them surrounded us.
“Yukina! Hey, Yukina!” Akira’s voice sounded so far away. His
hands tightened on my shoulders, but they no longer felt like my
own. This flesh shell I inhabited, it no longer mattered. The shrine
maidens turned, and I with them. We rotated until I was facing the
black waters, and it seemed the sunset had suspended. Time no
longer moved; not for the rest of the world, anyway. Or maybe for us.
I didn’t know. It didn’t matter.
“Yukina! Snap out of it!” Akira saved me from a bully when we
were just kids. He was big for his age, but his heart was even bigger.
We were inseparable after that, and I think people were shocked that
we didn’t start dating once we reached junior high. But that was
gross. He was like my brother.
His voice was so far away now. His hands seemed to melt
away from my shoulders until I felt empty, like a cloud. Where was
he? What was he doing? It briefly crossed my mind that perhaps one
of the shrine maidens had him, but it didn’t matter. The only thing
that mattered was the sunset in front of me, the black waters, and
the mirror in the shrine maiden’s hands.
The mirror. Where did that come from? It was simple and
unassuming. A perfect circle that had been polished to an equally
perfect sheen. Perhaps it was hidden in her kosode. What use was a
mirror to a maiden who couldn’t see? The thought amused me only
briefly. My eyes were drawn to it, like they had been to the maiden’s
lack of eyes, and I couldn’t look away.
The mirror seemed to shine. Sparkle. Reflect things I couldn’t
be sure were really there. The drums and chanting had entirely
blocked out any other sounds, including the screams of Yuu and
Akira.
 The maidens had formed a triangle around me, and I realised
the other two had mirrors as well. The two behind me were aimed at
the one in front of me. I could see the black water reflected in them,
only it seemed… different to the water I could see with my naked
eyes. That water was dark, colourless, and flat. But the water in the
mirrors… it roared, teeming with flailing limbs and the screams of the
dead. They were trying to escape. They were in eternal pain, and the
maidens… the maidens were here to soothe them.
I was here to soothe them.
Yes, a role only I could fulfil. Not Akira. Not Yuu. Not the broken
mess of a man at the bottom of the stairs. Only me. The girl with the
broken neck, she had been chosen as well, but something had gone
wrong. The ritual failed. She died and now she haunted this tower
waiting for someone like me to come along and help her move on.
Help them all move on. Someone to soothe the dark waters.
Me.
The maidens moved in, their mirrors keeping my eyes locked
on the sight before me. Somewhere I heard a splat, and it briefly
crossed my mind where Akira and Yuu were. Only briefly. More
important matters were at hand. The mirrors drew me in. I could not
look away, even if I wanted to. I didn’t want to. None of this was me,
and deep down I knew it, and yet it was. I could not fight against it,
and I would not.
There was a flash of light, and then darkness. I couldn’t tell up
from down, left from right. After some initial panic and confusion, I
realised where I was. I was in the bay. Arms and legs reached out for
me. They grabbed my ankles and pulled my hair. I screamed and my
mouth filled with the dark liquid. I could see nothing, but I could feel
them all over me. Groping, grabbing, and pulling. They wanted out.
Their panic became my panic.
No. Not like this. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.
What was going on? How did I get here? I was inside the
observatory, looking at the mirrors, and then… here.
Oh god. Akira! Yuu! Were they okay? What had taken over me?
My heart raced and I kicked my legs, but I had no idea which way I
was going. Up? Down? Air. I needed air.
 There! A light! A bright orange circle, shimmering and wavering
in the distance. The sun! I kicked off the hands and swam for it.
Where were Akira and Yuu? I kicked harder and harder, pushing
through the darkness like my life depended on it. Because it did.
The broken neck girl. Her ritual failed. Whatever happened, the
mirrors hadn’t sent her into the black water. It merely sent her
outside the observatory walls. Into midair. She then plunged to her
death on the hard ground below. She didn’t soothe anything. She
became another ghost trapped to that tower, to the mountain itself,
just like the shrine maidens.
I broke the surface of the water and took a large gulp of much
needed air. My lungs burned and my heart raced. I looked around in
all directions and the sun was just barely visible behind me. It was
almost gone and night about to take over, and if the sun was behind
me, that meant land was the other way.
Not a lot went through my mind on the way back. I ran once I hit
shore, pumping my legs as fast as they would take me, a chill
settling over me as the night air poured in over my wet clothes. The
bay was clear once again. It reflected the stars that came out to play
and looked like its own contained galaxy. It was beautiful. It was also
full of thousands of lost souls, and having seen what I’d seen, I
couldn’t look at it the same way again.
I wasn’t quite sure what I expected to see once I got back to the
observatory either, but it wasn’t what greeted me. The door was
open, but nobody was inside. Yuu’s car remained parked outside,
untouched. A single bloody nail lay at the foot of the open door.
Someone had tried to scratch their way out. As I made my way up
the stairs, I found Akira’s phone lying on the observatory deck. It was
the only thing there. I picked it up and pressed the button. The
camera was open. I checked the photo reel. Dark, gaping eyes
seemed to stare right into it, and on the very edges there was a
screaming face, blurred and distorted. Bleach blond hair spiked up.
Just like Akira’s.
I never saw them again after that. Police opened an
investigation, and for a while they suspected I played a part in their
disappearance. I mean, they weren’t wrong, not exactly. But I knew
where they were. The same place the maidens had sent me. They
were in the bay. Not Kiyomizu Bay, of course. Kuromizu Bay. Their
souls trapped in eternal torment by the corrupted maidens.
When would the black waters return next? I had no idea, but I
would wait until that time, and I would find them. I would free them.
Or at least, whatever remained of them by then…
 Mary-san’s Manor

I grew up only a stone’s throw away from Mount Yami, and so I

heard all the stories as a child. A typhoon tore through the area over
50 years earlier and destroyed everything in its path. It killed all the
people on the mountain at the time; it destroyed all the buildings, and
it turned the area into a death trap. On various levels. The spirits of
those who died were trapped there, and if you decided to venture
onto the mountain now, those angry spirits would kill you too,
perpetuating a cycle of more and more bad energy or something. It
made for cool ghost stories, but they were just that; stories.
But there was one that always intrigued me, and as Kazuya and
I drove around the mountain, not heading to any destination in
particular but still keeping our eyes out, I hoped we might finally find
it. Mary-san’s Manor. Weird name, right? Who the hell was Mary-san
and why did she have a manor in the mountains? Mount Yami had
long been considered a sacred mountain by locals for hundreds,
maybe even thousands of years… why would they allow something
as gauche as “Mary-san’s Manor” to be built on it?
But that was what made it so interesting, right? Mount Yami
was sacred. It had numerous shrines and temples—there were
rumours of several old Buddhist sects that resided on the mountain,
although by the sounds of them they’d be called “cults” these days—
as well as the infamous shrine maidens who oversaw the majority of
shrines and rituals. Normally it was the priests who oversaw these
things, but not here. On Mount Yami, the shrine maidens had the
power, and the priests deferred to them. Hell, even amongst the
shrine maidens there were different levels and sects, some who
were more powerful and important than others, and some who did
the “dirty work” that nobody else could or even should.
So then, how did this sacred, ancient mountain end up with
something called Mary-san’s Manor? The rumours claimed it was full
of dolls. Not just one or two dolls; like, literally brimming to the rafters
with them. It was supposed to look like a large Western mansion,
and once you went inside, it was nothing but dolls. Japanese-style
dolls, Western-style dolls, old dolls, new dolls; just dolls everywhere.
 I always figured the name of the manor wasn’t its actual name,
but rather what someone dubbed it after seeing the ghastly sight.
Why Mary-san? Well, she was a popular urban legend, wasn’t she?
This doll would call you on the phone and be like, “I’m Mary-san, I’m
at the station right now,” and then she’d gradually get closer and
closer with each call until she was behind you. Creepy, but she was
a Western doll, so they called her Mary-san. House full of dolls.
Mary-san. Mary-san’s Manor. Made sense.
“Do you reckon that if we find the place, that Mary-san will
call?” Kazuya interrupted my thoughts, as though reading them.
“Huh?”
“If we find it, do you think she’ll call?”
“She’s not real.”
“I know, but…”
“Just keep an eye out for it. It’s gotta be around here
somewhere.”
Despite numerous reports on the internet from people visiting
the manor, nobody could ever give a solid address for it. It was as
though the building moved around the mountain, appearing
wherever and whenever it wanted to. Nonsense. I read every single
report I could find and narrowed down a few details that made me
think it was in the area we were currently patrolling.
First, everyone always mentioned a stream. There was a
stream that passed by the front of the building; not big, not raging,
but not tiny either. You could cross over it on foot, but you would get
almost up to your waist wet if you did. There was no bridge. Now,
being a mountain, it was covered in streams and rivers. Most were
small and didn’t amount to much, but a few were larger and led all
the way down to Kiyomizu Bay. By the sounds of it, this had to be
one of the streams leading there.
Second, the manor was surrounded by large pine and oak
trees. This wouldn’t mean much to most people, but to me, a kid who
grew up in the area, that greatly narrowed the search down. The
mountain was covered in pines and oaks—amongst a whole host of
other trees—but what most people didn’t realise was that these trees
generally didn’t mix here. If they were seen together, that could
mean only one stretch of mountain about a kilometre or so from the
bay. The area we were currently driving around.
Third, and the most important part for us right now… the shrine
gate. Again, by itself this wouldn’t be helpful information. Mount Yami
was a sacred mountain that, back in the day, was inhabited by
various shrine maidens and priests. There were shrines all over the
place, and even more shrine gates. Most had been destroyed in the
typhoon, and those that hadn’t were for the most part ruined. Shells
of their former selves, now rotting or falling apart. But the way to
Mary-san’s Manor was said to be marked by a plain white shrine
gate. Those were rare, and in fact, I couldn’t remember ever seeing
a simple, plain white shrine gate in my entire life here. So, if we
could find that, we’d be on our way.
“Naoto, we’ve been driving around here for hours. I don’t think
we’re gonna find it.”
“Not with that attitude.”
“Come on, man. You’re not the one paying for fuel…”
I rolled my eyes. All Kazuya ever did was complain. Well, he
wouldn’t be bitching once we found the place, would he? No, then it
would be the same as all the other times. “Oh my god, man, this is
amazing! We gotta take some photos! No-one’s gonna believe it!” He
liked trolling abandoned places just as much as I did. Hell, he was
the one with the blog, not me. I didn’t feel the need to brag about my
conquests online. That was all him.
“Stop the car!” The force of my voice scared even me. Kazuya
slammed on the brakes and the car skidded before coming to an
abrupt halt.
“What the hell, dude?”
“Look!” I pointed to our left. It was hidden amongst the trees,
but it was definitely there. My heart raced. A few patches of white
poking out of the trees about 20 metres in. No doubt about it. That
was the shrine gate.
I ran out of the car before Kazuya could stop me. I could hear
him pulling over on the side of the road and then getting out to follow
me as I ran through the trees. This was it. Finally. The infamous
manor. Most reports were fakes, just internet stories made up to
scare and amuse, but some of them were real. It was like the golden
horse of haikyo hunters; only a few ever found it, and most who did
spoke little of their experience. If it scared even seasoned hunters
that much, then I had to see it.
“Naoto! Wait!”
I pushed through the branches and stopped. A wide grin spread
across my face. There it stood, beautiful and magnificent. A
modestly sized shrine gate, just higher than my head, but perfectly
white. It appeared to be made of stone, but it had been painted white
on top of that. It was a conscious choice. Interesting.
“Oh shit.” Kazuya stopped in his tracks behind me. “No way,
dude, it’s real?”
“I told you, didn’t I?” I turned around, and unable to wipe the
grin off my face, poked him in the chest. “Have I ever led you
astray?”
“I mean, many times, yeah, but holy shit. I didn’t think we’d
actually find it!”
“Well, we haven’t yet, technically. But it shouldn’t be too far
away.”
Next step was a stream. That shouldn’t be too hard. Listen for
water. The shrine gate led to the house, so as long as we didn’t stray
too far and continued walking in a straight line, we should eventually
come across a stream.
And so we did. Perhaps ten minutes of pushing through a dark
pine and oak forest later, only a torch that Kazuya had thankfully
thought to bring with him to light our way, the sound of water rolling
over rocks in the distance filled my ears like the sound of an angel’s
singing. And beyond it, a majestic building rose like the grand
mansion I had always imagined it might be.
“Holy shit…” Kazuya bumped into my shoulder behind me and
then stopped dead. He always had a certain way with words.
“I told you, didn’t I? This would be the night, and here it is.”
“It’s actually real…”
There was no bridge crossing the stream, which meant we’d
have to wade through its cold, dark waters. A small price to pay for
having found one of the rarest abandoned buildings around.
 I ran straight for the stream and started wading through it.
“Hey, wait! Do we really have to… oh god… I just bought these
shoes…” I could hear Kazuya pouting behind me, but before long he
entered the water as well. It was freezing, and as my shoes sloshed
through the cold waters, it felt like my feet might ice over and snap
off. That wouldn’t stop me though. Nothing would stop me now.
There it was, rising into the trees. Only a little moonlight
managed to break through the dark forest, but I could still see it all
the same. It looked like one of those fancy European mansions that
royalty or rich people lived in. What the hell was something like this
doing all the way out here? And that was the charm, wasn’t it?
Nothing about it made sense. I had to find out why.
“Hey, what’s that?” Kazuya pointed his torch from behind me at
something on the bank just across from us. As I pushed through the
deepest section and started to climb again, I picked the wet object
up and then pulled myself out of the water.
“It’s a… doll.” I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped my lips.
“Well, that’s certainly a welcome.”
This was it. Not that I doubted it, but here was an actual, real,
physical doll in my hands just outside Mary-san’s Manor. Adrenaline
coursed through my veins, fighting with the pure happiness that had
my heart pumping like a jackhammer.
“Oh wow,” Kazuya said, pulling himself up out of the water too.
“It’s just like those hina nagashi dolls.”
Hina nagashi. An old custom where people sent dolls downriver
to wash away their bad luck and ill omens. The doll was supposed to
represent the person, and by washing it away, all the bad energy
would go with the doll and away from the person. The doll was a kind
of sacrifice, I suppose you might say.
“They practised hina nagashi here?” I wondered out loud.
Interesting. I mean, it would make sense. The shrine maidens here
carried out all sorts of rituals, and it wasn’t like hina nagashi was rare
or anything back in the day. On a sacred mountain full of streams
and rivers, it would be natural that they washed dolls away here too.
“Alright, come on, let’s check this bad boy out.” I gripped the
doll and started moving towards the manor. There were long, thin
windows topped by half circles all along the front, and a large double
door that appeared to be deep red in the darkness. The second floor,
also full of the same windows, was topped by an equally dark roof
the same colour as the front door. A few smaller sections poked out
of it with windows of their own; an attic or something, maybe.
Amazing. I’d never seen anything like it before.
But what really stood out was how new it looked. I’d lost count
of the number of abandoned buildings I’d visited in my life, but none
of them looked like this. Hell, most inhabited places didn’t look this
nice. It wasn’t rotting or falling apart. The paint was fresh, the wood
looked good as the day it was made, and the windows were clean
and unbroken. Had we actually stumbled upon someone’s house in
the woods? No, that was stupid. Who on earth would live all the way
out here? There was no letter box, and no driveway either.
Weird.
“The door’s open…” I turned to look at Kazuya as the handle
pushed down without resistance. His face tightened and he visibly
gulped. I held the doll up with my left hand and shook it a little. “I
wonder if we’ll find some more inside.” I couldn’t hide the grin
creeping onto my face. Kazuya never said anything out loud about it,
but he hated dolls. Every time we stumbled across one in an
abandoned building he’d give it wide berth and try not to look at it. I
guess a holdover from visiting his grandparents’ house as a kid and
having to sleep in the same room as all their giant and very old
Japanese dolls.
I pushed the door open with a creak and stepped inside.
Grabbing the torch from Kazuya, I shone it around the room. Inside
looked just as nice as the outside, although certainly a lot dustier. “I
wonder if there are lights in this place…” I searched the wall and
flicked a switch.
“Holy shit…”
The lights came on. I hadn’t been expecting that. Where was
the building getting power from? I didn’t see any power lines nearby.
Local power? A generator?
“I don’t like this place, man…” Kazuya mumbled.
 “That’s the point. Geez, lighten up, dude. We finally found it!
Mary-san’s Manor! It’s the holy grail of haikyo sites! Do you know
how many people have actually found this place?”
“No…”
“Exactly. Because not many. And those who do, well, they don’t
really return in a state to talk about their experiences…”
The blood drained from Kazuya’s face and I smiled again.
Chicken.
“So, you know, be careful with what you touch. And where you
go. And what you do…”
“I think I might wait outside…”
I slapped him on the shoulder and shoved him further into the
building. “Come on, let’s check it out.”
“No really, I…” His voice trailed off as we entered the main
section of the manor. It looked exactly how I expected. Gorgeous
furniture made of wood (only the deepest of colours…). Rich reds
and purples all over the linen. A fireplace. Several flags or banners
or something that I couldn’t quite place. It was as though someone
lifted a European building and then dropped it in the middle of the
Japanese forest. The feeling was… unsettling. I loved it.
“They… they weren’t lying…” Kazuya’s breath caught in his
throat as he pointed to our left.
“Holy shit.” Away from the grand living room stood hundreds,
no, maybe thousands of dolls stacked against the wall. A literal
mountain of them, piled and fallen and laying wherever they had
been thrown. Not just Japanese dolls, either. There were French and
German dolls, Chinese and Korean, dolls I’d never seen before and
the remains of what I guessed had been a doll once, but at this point
was little more than a mouldy torso…
“Jackpot.”
“Jackpot? Jackpot what? Dude, let’s get out of here!” Kazuya’s
voice rose a pitch higher than usual. I ignored him and walked over
to the dolls, picking one up. There was a stray leaf in its hair.
“How do you think they all got here? They can’t all be hina
nagashi…” I brushed the leaf away and put the doll back down. I
picked up a large German looking one next to it. “Who the hell would
wash something like this down the river?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it here. Can we go now?”
I ignored him again and picked up the Chinese doll next to that.
It was covered in mould and even a little moss. The dress, once rich
and vibrant, was torn, tattered, and fading. The face, oddly realistic,
stared at me with sad eyes that seemed to plead. For what?
Release? Acknowledgement? An end to all this?
A loud bang sounded nearby. I turned and Kazuya jumped and
looked sheepishly at the ground. He’d bumped into a stand and
knocked a book over. A puff of dust exploded into the air before
settling. “Hey, check this out,” he said, pointing to something on the
wall. I walked over with the doll and Kazuya took a step away from
me. I smiled.
“Kurosawa Manor… Established 1918. Hey, this is written in
English,” I said.
“Maybe the owner lived overseas or something and when he
came back he built this in the same style?”
“Maybe. Kurosawa, huh? I wonder what happened to them…”
“Probably moved away when the typhoon hit.”
“Or died.”
A silence fell over the room and the same thought no doubt
crossed both our minds. A mayoiga. A lost house said to appear and
disappear on whim, showing itself to those who wanted to see it.
There were rumours of several of these mayoiga on the mountain,
which made sense when you considered how vast it was and how
much of it had been destroyed in that typhoon, but still.
“Nah.” We both shook our head at the same time. This was
actually here. It was hard to find, sure, but not impossible once you
knew the signs. It was possible the manor still had a caretaker,
maybe a family member of one of the former shrine maidens or even
a Kurosawa descendant. That had to be it.
I rifled through the drawer, but there was nothing of interest.
Nothing to explain why so many dolls were in this European manor
in the middle of the forest high up a mountain.
 “Maybe they just liked dolls? Europeans like dolls, don’t they?”
Kazuya suggested, as though reading my mind. He still refused to
look at them, keeping his eyes focused on the small plaque on the
wall.
“This seems a little excessive. I wonder if there are even more
upstairs?”
“I’ll stay here. I’ll see if I can find a book or something, I
dunno…” Kazuya’s legs trembled and the piece of paper he picked
up off the small table shook in his hand as well.
“Yeah, you do that.” I put the doll down in front of him and
couldn’t hide the smile on my face as he recoiled in horror and
turned away from it. “They’re just dolls, you know.”
“I know. Hurry up.”
The stairs creaked as I walked upstairs, but they, like the rest of
the house, seemed in perfect working order. Not rotten, not falling
apart; they were as good as the day they were made. As I reached
the top, a long hallway spread out in front of me with numerous
doors on either side. I picked the first and it opened without
resistance.
“Oh dude, there’s a whole ass shrine up here!” I called out to
Kazuya.
“Uh huh, that’s great.”
I flicked the switch and the light in there turned on as well.
There was a shrine gate in the middle of the room, which alone
would have been unsettling, but it was covered top to bottom in
talismans, many of them old and tattered. “What the hell…”
Beyond the gate was what appeared to be a box on a raised
platform behind some sacred rope. The walls were lined with various
books, scrolls, and even more dolls. Most of these appeared to be
traditional Japanese ones, but there were a few Western dolls
amongst them as well. I picked up a scroll, but the writing was too
difficult to read. These were old. Like, real old. I picked up a tattered
red book and flicked through a few of the dirty pages. It stank like old
libraries, but this at least looked legible.
“March 3, 1919. We collected several of the dolls from the bank
outside the manor that didn’t make it all the way to Kiyomizu Bay.
They travelled a long way, and it felt wrong to burn them. After
discussing the matter with Mr Kurosawa, he agreed we could
enshrine them here. He has a fondness for dolls, after all. Says they
remind him of his lost daughter, Mari.”
Kurosawa Mari? No way. His daughter was Mary-san? I kept
reading.
“March 4, 1919. More dolls have washed up on the bank. Emi
claimed to have seen several enter the dark waters of Kuromizu Bay.
All disappeared except for one. The doll seemed different. Unwell.
Again, Mr Kurosawa agreed it would be best to keep the doll here.
We offered to take it back to the shrine and purify it before disposal,
but after a brief conversation with Emi, both agreed that here would
be best. I do not know what they said, but the doll has been placed
behind some sacred rope and entrusted to Mr Kurosawa’s care.”
“September 22, 1919. Emi has received strange reports from
Mr Kurosawa that the hina doll retrieved from Kuromizu Bay is
growing. It appears to be slightly larger in overall appearance, and its
hair continues to grow. Mr Kurosawa cuts it himself, and it’s not the
first time I’ve heard of such a phenomenon, but it does not bode
well.”
“March 3, 1920. We carried out the hina nagashi ritual again
today. Once more, Emi kept watch as night fell. She claimed no
‘survivors’ this time. The dark waters swallowed them all whole. Part
of me is relieved, but another part is worried about what happens to
those dolls once they disappear, and how that affects their former
owners.”
“November 18, 1920. Emi visited Mr Kurosawa today during
one of her regular trips to cleanse the lost dolls. There was one room
he refused to let her into, and she claimed to hear a noise behind it.
The Kuromizu doll was gone from its podium, and a box left in its
place. Mr Kurosawa quickly ushered her out before she could
determine what was going on.”
A loud bang caused me to jump and almost drop the book. I’d
been so engrossed in its contents that I completely forgot where I
was and what I’d been doing. “Geez, Kazuya, what the hell are you
doing down there?” I called out from the door.
 “What? I thought that was you!”
Another bump. No, it wasn’t coming from downstairs at all. It
was coming from the door at the end of the hall.
“Very funny, you made your point!” Kazuya yelled up again. If it
wasn’t him, and it wasn’t me, then…
I clutched the book tightly to my chest and moved towards the
door at the end of the hall. My heart pounded and my feet dragged.
So this was how Kazuya felt all the time, huh? Years of visiting
abandoned buildings in the dead of night had made me pretty
hardened to even the most frightening of “scares,” and yet I couldn’t
calm the racing of my heart.
One foot after the other—slowly, deliberately—I approached the
door. A small girl giggled and I stopped. I clutched the book even
tighter, as though its mere presence alone would save me. No way.
Someone must have gotten here before us. They must have heard
us coming and then hid when we came inside. This was a prank, the
ultimate prank, and I nervously laughed. Yeah, that was it. Well, they
sure got me good. But I couldn’t let them know that. Two could play
at that game.
I stood in front of the door and slowly reached out for the
handle. Another laugh, this time very clearly coming from inside that
room, followed by footsteps. They wanted me to hear them. They
wanted me to know they were in there. There had to be at least one
girl, but how many of them were waiting for me? Were they waiting
to see if I ran screaming in terror from the building? Or were they
waiting for me to open the door before they gave me another jump
scare? I gripped the book tightly in my hand. It could be used as a
weapon if needs be, but they didn’t know I was onto them. It was
time to turn the tables.
Reaching out for the handle, I gripped it tightly and then
pushed. It didn’t move. What the hell? I tried again, jiggling it harder
this time. Unlike all the other doors here, this one refused to open.
The sounds behind the door fell silent as well. Not like a group of
people suddenly not talking, either. Like there was nothing in there at
all, and never had been.
 “I know you’re in there!” I screamed. This wasn’t funny
anymore. It never was, but now my heart raced even faster than
before. I didn’t like being made a fool of. I was the one who did the
pranking, not the other way around. Yet there was still nothing but
silence from the other side, and a door that refused to budge.
“Screw this,” I muttered and turned to return to Kazuya. Maybe
he was right. We should get out of here. Yet I had barely taken three
steps when I heard that laughter again. I turned around and stared at
the door. They were just messing with me. They knew that I knew
they were there, so they were just messing with me. I tiptoed back to
the door and pressed my ear to it. Maybe if I stayed quiet enough
they would come out of the room and I could catch them unawares.
Turn the tables. It was nothing less than they deserved.
“What are you doing?”
I almost jumped out of my skin. Kazuya stood behind me, a
worried look on his face.
“Huh?”
“I said, what are you doing? You’ve been up here forever, man.”
I checked my watch. Almost twenty minutes had passed. What
the hell?
“What the…?” I shook my head. That didn’t matter. “There are
people in there.” I pressed my finger against the door. “I was trying to
hear what they were saying.”
Kazuya narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. “There’s nobody
up here but you.”
“Seriously, dude, I heard them. There was a girl laughing, and…
well, that was mostly it. And look what I found!” I shoved the book at
him. “People did use the river for hina nagashi. They collected a
bunch of the dolls that never made it to the bay and brought them
here. There’s a damn shrine or something in that other room, and—”
“I really think we should get out of here,” Kazuya cut me off.
“Yeah, no, totally, but I wanna see who’s in this room first.”
“Naoto.”
“What?”
Kazuya pointed at the door. It was open. It had been open the
whole time.
 “…”
I didn’t know what to say. Nothing made sense. Not only was
the door open, but it looked nothing like the door I was leaning
against just seconds ago. That door was white, clean, good as the
day it was made. This one was brown, rotting, and looked like it had
been burnt.
“There’s nothing in there.”
I shook my head. “No. That doesn’t make sense. This door was
locked. It… it was white. Brand new. There were voices on the other
side. What the hell?”
“We should go.”
“No.” I refused to accept it. I walked through the door and
almost instantly fell on my backside. This was not… What was going
on?
“Kazuya?” I called out, but there was no response. There was
no door, either. The room I stepped into wasn’t the same one I’d just
seen. This one was pure white, and as I shielded my eyes, I heard it
again. That same high-pitched laughter, only this time, it was closer.
“W-Who are you?”
“Who are you?” The same voice returned the question. A
simple question I wasn’t sure how to answer.
“Where am I?”
“Where are you?” The question repeated again. The voice was
mocking me, and it was too bright to see anything.
“A-Are you… Mary-san?” The words felt stupid leaving my
mouth. “No, not Mary. Mari, isn’t it?”
Silence this time.
“You died, didn’t you?”
Silence.
“But your father wouldn’t let you pass on.”
More silence. I knew it.
“He kept you here, trapped in this house. In this room. It was
the dolls, right? He was trying to find the right one to… to bring you
back.”
I turned around and lifeless eyes stared into my soul. The face
was dark, cracked, and streaked with what looked like tears. The
dark hair was tied in ponytails on either side of her head, but it was
full of leaves and sticks and god knew what else.
“Get me out of here.” It wasn’t a command. It was a request.
Yet a chill ran through me all the same.
“How?”
A cold wooden hand gripped my wrist. It burnt, and yet that was
the least of my concerns. I saw it all. Everything. The images all
flooded me at once. I dropped to the floor and threw up. Mari running
through the forest with some other children. Tripping and falling into
the river. The faces of the shocked children as they watched in
horror and yet did nothing as Mari’s body floated downstream. The
bright red sunset. The waters of Kiyomizu Bay turning black, and
then… darkness. Mari disappeared into it, a single hina doll floating
beside her.
When she came back to, things were… wrong. Everything
looked funny. Sounded funny. Smelt funny. Shrine maidens
surrounded a box as her father watched from the door. When they
left, he opened it, removed the doll, and put it in another room. The
end room. It wasn’t the only doll in there; on the contrary. The room
was full of dolls, but they were different. They were… wrong. The
dolls recovered from Kuromizu Bay. They were stained with dark
water. They twitched and jerked. Dark liquid streamed from their
eyes, forming equally dark puddles beneath them. They moved,
sitting in different places whenever Mari opened her eyes.
Sometimes she felt like she was inside them, other times she
watched them from afar. Time did not exist, at least, not in any
comprehensible way. Sometimes she was, sometimes she wasn’t.
Sometimes she peered through a doll’s eyes, and other times she
watched them in third person.
“He wanted to bring you back…” I spat the words out as
another wave of nausea washed over me. “You… you died in the
black waters. He thought the dolls that also reached the black waters
would be the key.”
She said nothing. She didn’t have to. I saw what she saw. Felt
what she felt. All these years, these decades, she’d been trapped in
this room as her father carried out his weird experiments on the dolls
in an attempt to bring his daughter back. And it worked… sort of.
When I looked back up, I feared this might finally be it. The last
snap of my sanity about to break. The dolls of Kuromizu Bay
surrounded me. Where they came from I didn’t know, but in the
bright white space they crowded around me, closing in. I could see
all their defects horrifyingly up close and personal. The black waters
changed them. Again they twitched and jerked. Water seeped out
their eyes, their ears, all the cracks on their faces, but it wasn’t clear.
It was dark. Their clothes stank of death… or maybe it was the dolls
themselves. They reached for me. Closed in. Closer. Closer…
Each of them held a little part of Mari. A memory, a feeling, a
desire, a remnant of her soul. None of them were suitable vessels,
and yet she lingered in them all. The shrine maidens must have
known what Mari’s father was up to, and yet they did nothing.
Perhaps they could do nothing. And still they kept storing the dolls
here. They were complicit in his horrific crime, whether they actually
carried out the horrendous acts with their own two hands or not.
She was no longer Mari. Not anymore. She had become Mary-
san. Twisted and warped by the dark waters, and then further
corrupted by the heinous, ungodly acts of her father. Mary-san’s
Manor sat outside space and time; at least, in that moment, it
certainly felt that way. It looked brand new because she wanted it to.
She lured people to it, hoping they would free her. But nobody ever
did. Nobody ever could. The human mind… it wasn’t ready for such
sights. Such sensations. The black waters, they did something… no
human mind could survive it.
Mari… Mary-san… she was no longer human though. As each
of the dolls closed in and their cold wooden and porcelain hands
grabbed for me, groping and grasping and yanking and pulling,
demanding my help, the memories, the sensations, the pain, the
horror, the confusion, it all flooded me at once. It was too much to
bear. I could faintly hear Kazuya screaming my name some distance
away, but it was soon drowned out by my own screams.
Another failure. I was not the one to free Mary-san. She would
keep trying, long after Kazuya ran from the building in tears. They
would put out search parties, but they wouldn’t find the manor. Not
this time. Not until Mary-san was ready. Not until she felt she found a
new potential candidate for freedom. If they were lucky, they would
hear her laughter and run, like I should have. But those who explore
abandoned buildings for fun are curious by nature. They like the thrill
of the unknown, the thrill of finding something forbidden, something
that shouldn’t be.
Many more would follow. They’d try to get in, and when she
was ready, she would let them. And like me, they’d never leave
again.
As my psyche shattered, my final thoughts were of my mother
and how I should have told her how much I loved her. A bit late for
that now. I’m sorry, Mum.
Then everything snapped, and the dark waters poured in…
 Karasu Falls

“You’re crazy to go climbing up there.” It was a line I’d heard many

times before. Mount Yami had a bit of a reputation for being a
dangerous area, sure, but people climbed it year after year without
problem. It was no more or less dangerous than any other mountain.
As long as you took the proper precautions, then very little could or
would go wrong.
I was hardly a newcomer, either. Ever since I developed an
interest in mountain climbing as a teenager, I made it a point to visit
Mount Yami at least once every year. Something about it drew me to
it. Maybe it was the history, or the terrifying amount of shrines, or the
sight of the sunset beyond Kiyomizu Bay. Seeing that from the top of
the mountain sure was a sight to behold, and not one many people
could claim to have witnessed these days. Most people avoided the
mountain. All the better for me!
“Hey, watch out!”
I leapt off the side of the road and into the bushes. A car with
three people inside zoomed around the corner, almost taking me out.
Two men sat in the front and a woman in the back.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I yelled behind them, but nobody
turned around. They probably didn’t even see me with how fast they
were going. “Damn kids…”
I dusted myself off and continued on my way. Not the first time
a car took a blind corner at full speed, and it likely wouldn’t be the
last, either. It didn’t matter. The trail head was just a little further up
the mountain. Then I’d be off the dangerous roads and into the much
safer mountain! From my perspective, anyway.
The plan was simple. It was a path I’d taken numerous times. It
might seem strange to start in the afternoon to an outsider, hell, even
to a seasoned mountain climber, but I had a very good reason for it. I
liked to start bright and early, and the only way to do that was to first
camp on the mountain. My favourite spot was by Karasu Falls, a
gorgeous little waterfall with a fascinating history behind it.
Legend had it that long ago, a young brother and sister were
kidnapped by bandits and taken up the mountain. The siblings
struggled and the young boy was killed. In her grief, the sister
stabbed the head bandit, only to discover it was their long lost
mother, and in grief, she jumped over the edge of that very waterfall.
Locals called it Karasu Falls because of the eerie number of crows
who liked to flock there—some said to the girl’s spirit, for she had
been kind to them in life—and also because of the long, wet locks of
the girl’s ghost who had been seen in the area after death. They
looked like the wet feathers of a crow, and thus, Karasu Falls.
So anyway, the plan was to reach Karasu Falls sometime
before sunset, set up camp, get a good night’s sleep, and then set
out bright and early the next morning. If all went according to plan
and no strange weather set me back, I could reach my destination
before nightfall. There was a cabin near the peak that I always
stayed in, and then the following day I could come back down again.
It always went this way, and that familiarity was what made it so
much fun for me. No nasty, unexpected surprises. Just me and a few
days in nature. Beautiful.
Yet it seemed fate had other plans in store for me. As I
wandered along the path leading towards Karasu Falls, voices on
the wind caught my ear. Seemed I wasn’t the only one with the same
idea. Odd. At this time of year there usually weren’t many people
around. That was why I chose it. Climbing with other people wasn’t
really my idea of fun. Damn.
I hid behind a tree as I got closer to appraise the situation. A
small group of three people sat around a tiny campfire. The sun
hadn’t yet set, but they warmed their hands by it. A campfire wasn’t
good. That meant they planned to stay the night too. Damn. My
solitude destroyed. This was already off to a bad start.
“So she was like, ‘I told you that mountain is dangerous, do you
really wanna leave Akihiro without a father?’ And I was like, ‘The boy
would be better off knowing his father did what he loved in life rather
than living his life dead on the inside.’” One climber regaled the other
two with a tale they were clearly not interested in. The woman sitting
opposite him even yawned. “What? I suppose you have a better
story?”
“I do, actually,” she replied.
 “Well, go on then. We’re all ears.”
“Alright. So, this one time I had an argument with my boyfriend,
right? The two of us agreed to climb the mountain together, but on
the day he claimed he was sick and couldn’t go. ‘Oh, my head hurts,
I don’t feel so well.’ Yeah, whatever, he was like that all the time.
Whenever he didn’t want to do something, he’d cry headache and
moan about it all day. Whatever, I told him he could stay home and
I’d go by myself. I’d never climbed the mountain myself before, but
there’s a first time for everything, right?”
Darkness started to descend over the forest. The sun was
setting. Not that I could really see it from here, but you could feel it. I
enjoyed that period of time most of all. That brief moment where the
barriers between worlds seemed thinnest. Where you could never be
sure where you truly were, or what might be lurking in the trees
nearby. In this case, I was the one lurking, and they had no idea I
was there. That little fact made me feel powerful, although that didn’t
drown out the annoyance I felt that they were there in the first place.
“So I took the path we always took together, but this time, all
alone. And as I’m nearing the top of the mountain, snow starting to
fall all around me, it hits me. ‘Ah, crap. I’m gonna die up here, aren’t
I?’”
The two men sitting by the campfire listened with unimpressed
looks on their faces. One even rolled his eyes, like “here it comes…”
They’d heard this one before.
“I keep plunging forward through this blizzard, and through the
almost pure white covering my vision, I see it. This dark figure
standing just up ahead. ‘Who the hell could that be?’ I wonder, and
as I push forward, I realise I’m not getting any closer. This person is
keeping the exact same pace as me, but ahead rather than behind.
‘Weird,’ I thought, but then suddenly the figure stopped. I stopped as
well. My heart started beating wildly, and a shiver ran through my
entire body. Like, it started at the base of my neck and went all the
way down to my toes. ‘Something isn’t right,’ I thought. I didn’t know
why I knew that, but I did. Whatever that figure in the snow was, it
wasn’t human.”
 “You know who I’d like to meet up there who isn’t human? Yuki-
onna,” one of the men wearing a beanie said with a laugh. He
slapped the other guy on the shoulder, but said man just returned a
small, fake grin.
“Anyway,” the woman said, raising her voice and ignoring the
comment, “In the snow I see this figure turn around, and then it starts
approaching me. There’s nowhere else to go. The cabin was past
whoever it was, and if I turned around, it would take far too long to
reach the bottom of the mountain again. I’d be running through a
blizzard in the night. That’s a death sentence.”
“Having to listen to your stories all night is a death sentence,”
the man with the beanie said under his breath.
“You say something?” the woman turned to him with a snap.
The man held his hands up as if to say, “No, sorry, go ahead.”
“Good. So anyway, the figure gets closer and closer, and I’m
frozen on the spot, right? No idea what to do. My goal is past
whatever that thing is, and I can’t really turn around either. And then,
finally, it breaks through the snow and I see it. It has no face.
Nothing. Just completely blank, but then a mouth suddenly forms
and it screams this ungodly sound I’ve never heard the likes of
before or since. Seriously, I thought I was going to die right then and
there.”
“And what happened next?” The man not wearing a beanie
asked.
“I don’t really remember. I ran. I must have pushed past it or
something. Next thing I knew, I was at the cabin and utterly
exhausted. Somehow I made it. And that was my experience with
the Nopperabo of Mount Yami.”
“I thought it was a Mujina?” the man in the beanie interjected.
“Does it matter? It didn’t have a face, alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, alright. I can’t say I ever ran into a figure without a
face up there though.”
“Maybe it doesn’t like morons.”
“Really? That’s your best comeback? ‘Maybe it doesn’t like
morons.’” The man imitated her with a high pitched voice.
 “I see you two are at it again. We arrive just in time?” Two more
figures stepped out of the trees and made themselves comfortable
around the campfire. Well. Wasn’t this just a veritable party? Five
people sat around the campfire now, two women and three men, all
dressed to the nines for mountain climbing. It wasn’t that cold down
here by the waterfall, however, and they all looked odd and out of
place. Everyone exchanged greetings, and a calm settled over the
area again.
Well, this was no good. Not only did they not show any signs of
moving, but now there were more of them, and darkness was rapidly
settling in. I could either move on and camp somewhere else,
although I didn’t really know of anywhere else nearby, or I could
make myself known and join them. That wasn’t the most appealing
idea either. Maybe if I waited long enough they’d move on by
themselves?
“You gonna join us or hang out there all night?” a voice
suddenly called out. I jolted and froze. Shit. Did they see me?
Everyone turned to look in my direction at the same time. I gulped.
That was most definitely not normal. But no hiding it anymore either.
I stepped out from behind the tree, adjusted the pack on my back,
and walked forward.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. I just didn’t think other
people would be here, and well…”
“Not at all. Come, sit, join us by the fire. We’re just telling stories
to while the time away.”
I placed my pack on the ground and took the only empty spot
around the fire. The six of us fit perfectly around it. Weird.
“You guys, uh, planning to climb the mountain tomorrow too?” I
didn’t want to get too friendly. I still planned on starting first thing in
the morning, and preferably by myself. Everyone looked around at
each other but didn’t say anything.
“Are you?” They returned the question instead. I nodded in
response. The guy in the beanie rolled his eyes again, and the
woman constantly arguing with him slapped him across the shoulder.
“What?”
 She narrowed her eyes and said something I couldn’t quite
catch.
“Alright,” the other woman in the yellow jacket said. “I see. Uh,
why don’t you tell us a little about yourself first then.”
“Again?” the man in the beanie muttered. And again the woman
slapped him.
“Um, alright. My name is Toshihisa. You can call me Toshi. I’ve
been climbing Mount Yami for well over a decade now. I’d consider
myself pretty seasoned these days, but I always like to be prepared
for the worst.”
The woman in the yellow jacket smiled. There was a certain
sadness in her eyes, however, that drew me to her. “Toshi, huh?
Well, nice to meet you, Toshi.”
“Yeah, nice to meet ya…” several people around the camp
muttered. Nobody seemed quite happy or comfortable with it though.
The weird atmosphere descending over the campsite made my skin
crawl. An awkward silence fell, and all I could hear was the sound of
the water beating the rocks from the waterfall nearby.
“So, uh, why are you guys here if not to climb the mountain?”
“Who said we’re not climbing?” the man in the beanie replied.
“Well, you didn’t seem very… never mind.” Everything in me
screamed to get out of there at once. Not because of any potential
danger, but because of how awkward it was already.
“My name’s Kaori,” the woman in the yellow jacket said. She
went around each person in turn. “And this is Hideto (man in beanie),
Chie (the woman with the Nopperabo story), Daiki (the other man),
and my beloved husband Akio (the other newcomer).”
Everyone nodded their heads or raised their hands in greeting. I
did the same.
“So, Toshi. Now that we all know each other, why don’t you tell
us a story? Surely you have more than a few if you’ve been climbing
Mount Yami for over ten years.” Kaori’s eyes looked sad, but maybe
that was just her natural expression.
“A story? Uh… I’m not really good at stories.” That was an
understatement. I didn’t like being around people in general, let
alone sharing a campfire and telling stories. I looked over at the
waterfall and let the sound of the water beating the rocks wash over
me for a moment. Primal fear rose within me at the sight of the
majestic waterfall and the sharp, jagged rocks at its bottom, but the
sound of the water was also soothing. It sure beat silence.
“Well, uh, one time I ran into a boar. I was maybe two hours
away from the cabin, you know, the one near the peak that’s
somewhat hidden behind the trees. I think most climbers don’t know
it exists, but for us seasoned climbers, well…”
Everyone stared at me blankly. As the sun disappeared and
darkness settled in, a chill seemed to descend over the area. Come
to think of it, it was the tail end of summer. Why was Hideto dressed
like it was winter already? Sure, warm clothes were necessary for
the top of the mountain, but nobody was climbing this night, so it
seemed a bit overkill. Then again, the chill in the area said
otherwise. I shook my head to clear the thought.
“A boar. Wow. Fascinating,” Hideto said. Once again Chie
slapped him. That seemed to be their usual banter. Hideto said
something rude and Chie slapped him for it.
“Uh, how do you guys know each other?” I changed the subject.
My skin crawled with how much I didn’t want to be there.
“Well, Akio and I are married, of course,” Kaori said and
squeezed her husband’s hand. “And the rest of us met here on the
mountain, didn’t we?”
Daiki opened his mouth to say something, but glares from the
other climbers around the fire soon shut him up. There was
something very, very wrong here, but I couldn’t place my finger on
what.
“Do you often climb together?” I asked. Again, they all looked at
each other in silence, a conversation seemingly taking place in their
heads while they debated the best way to answer.
“Not so much these days, but sure,” Hideto said. “Climbing the
mountain kind of loses its appeal after you’ve done it so many times,
you know?”
The emphasis on “so” struck me as weird. “How many times
have you climbed the mountain?” I asked. Hideto pretended to count
on his fingers and then laughed.
 “Oh, a few hundred times, at least. I mean, I’ve been at it for
years now. Years. Hell, at this point I know the mountain better than
my own home. Well, I suppose the mountain is my home now…”
“Hideto!” Chie squeezed the word out through her closed teeth.
“What?”
She narrowed her eyes at him and another silent conversation
took place. Yeah, this was getting too weird for me. There were
plenty of other places I could camp, and I didn’t want to be around
these people one second longer. They didn’t appear to be
dangerous, but something felt wrong. Unnatural. And despite most of
my climbing expeditions being trouble-free, there was the occasional
moment where something happened that I couldn’t explain. I
certainly didn’t believe in ghosts, but being unable to explain
something with pure logic was just as terrifying in my mind. They
couldn’t be ghosts, no, but that didn’t change that they also didn’t
feel right, didn’t feel human, and that bothered me.
I coughed, slapped my hands on my knees, and then stood up.
“Well, this has been fun,” it really hadn’t been, “but I should get
going.”
Kaori frowned. “What? But you just got here? It’s dark, sit.
We’re not going to bite.”
“Hard…” Hideto muttered. This time Daiki slapped him.
“Don’t listen to Hideto. He’s a blowhard who hates his job and
lives with his mother and gets off on making others feel even more
shitty than he does on a daily basis.”
Daiki hadn’t said much up until that point, but all eyes turned to
Hideto after that little truth bomb and his mouth opened and closed
like a fish that had just jumped out of the waterfall and landed by the
campfire.
Well, this had gotten even more awkward.
“No really, I should get going.” I bent down to grab my backpack
when somebody grabbed my arm.
“Stay.” It was Akio, Kaori’s husband. The look in his eyes was
ice cold. We remained frozen in time in a silent battle of wills. I could
shake him off, grab my bag and run, asserting myself and my victory,
or I could admit defeat, let go, and sit back down, giving the win to
him. The decision was entirely up to me. This was the moment that
would change my fate. Run. Let them know I thought them to be
suspicious and turn any good will they might have against me. Or sit.
Pretend nothing was wrong, like they clearly were, and let this play
out a little further.
…I ran. I left my bag behind and I ran. It took a few moments,
but I could hear angry muttering behind me and then footsteps. As I
suspected, they were chasing me. I’d made the right decision; for
now, anyway. That decision might not seem so right if they caught
up.
I often told myself that I knew Mount Yami like the back of my
hand. There was no part of her that I didn’t know or hadn’t climbed,
but I also knew that was just a bluff. I knew the mountain better than
others, sure, but Mount Yami was a big place. Hell, it wasn’t even the
only mountain; it was connected to several tiny others that,
depending on who you spoke to, were also considered part of Mount
Yami itself. Extensions, not their own separate mountains.
Either way, that meant little as I ran blindly through the forest in
the dark. But as the sounds of the waterfall got further away, it hit
me. I was going the wrong way. The area above the waterfall was
rather open and flat. It was also a good camping area, if you didn’t
mind being shaded in by a few trees. But the real secret lay not there
but further beyond. Another cabin, if you could call it that. It was
more of a work shed, maybe a holdover from when the mountain
was more occupied. It was full of tools. Tools I could use to defend
myself and save my life.
I splashed through the river, ignoring the painful icy cold biting
into my legs. They weren’t far behind me, and their arguing travelled
on the wind to my ears. Did they also know of the cabin? Did it
matter? As long as I reached it first, I could grab something to
defend myself. There were more of them than me, but nobody would
want to be the first to step into a sharp nata blade.
Practised legs took me up the other side of the stream. Angry
screams followed, but I weaved my way through the darkness of the
trees and soon found myself climbing uphill. Yes. This was it. Not too
far away now.
 The angry shouts got closer. They were gaining on me, and the
darkness seemed to be no hindrance to them, either. Did they also
know of the shed? Did they know of my plan, if you could even call it
that, and planned to stop me before I could get there?
It didn’t matter. A few minutes later, my lungs burning and my
legs screaming, that tiny wooden shack came into view. Big enough
to fit a single bed and a whole bunch of forest maintenance tools. I
pushed my exhausted body to its limits and flung the door open. I
grabbed the first thing I could and turned around, weapon at the
ready.
My heart dropped. Not a nata. Not even a hoe. A plain old
broom. It wouldn’t do me much good, but they were already upon
me.
“Toshi, why do we have to do this every single time?” It was a
question, yes, but the way Kaori said it made it sound more like a
statement. I furrowed my brow and looked at her.
“What?” She wasn’t making sense.
“I mean, it was funny the first few times, but like Chie’s stories,
it loses appeal after a while.” Hideto.
“I don’t see you bringing us any new stories.” Chie.
“If you hadn’t been such an asshole, he wouldn’t have run.”
Daiki.
“I’m getting tired of this.” Akio.
“What the hell is going on?” I screamed, the broom in my hands
shaking. They stepped closer, and I edged backwards. With each
step they took forward, I took one back. They wouldn’t get me. I
wouldn’t let them. The waterfall roared nearby, making it hard to hear
what they were saying to each other.
“It’s okay!” Kaori screamed over the roaring water. She held
both hands up in front of her in a sign of peace. “Just step towards
us and away from the water.”
“He’s gonna do it again.” Hideto laughed.
“Shut up, Hideto. Toshi, just walk towards me, okay? I’m sorry
about Akio, he was a little…” her voice trailed off “…a little over-
exuberant, okay? Things have been getting to all of us, but if you
just…”
 “Who the hell are you?” I screamed. “What the hell is going
on?”
They were acting like they knew me. Like we’d done this
before. The waters roared nearby. I took another step back. Kaori
eyed the waterfall and something akin to fear descended over her
face. They didn’t like it. They didn’t want to go near it. Every year at
least one person died near Karasu Falls. You could almost set your
watch to it. Someone trying to take a photo would get too close to
the edge and get sucked over. Others would drown in the river
below. Some would inexplicably go missing, and their bodies would
turn up here. The falls attracted death; their roaring, tumultuous
waters that descended into a deep, dark pit at the bottom that never
let anyone go.
That was it, wasn’t it? As hard as it was to believe, the five
people standing in front of me really were spirits. Perhaps they had
carried out this same situation with numerous people before me, on
and on again, drawing new victims into their web. Invite a hiker to
their campfire, tell stories, then chase them once the victim realised
what was going on. That person would inevitably find themselves up
here, no doubt having the same idea I had, and then the ghosts
would finish matters. Then it would start all over again, year after
year, collecting souls for the turbulent waters.
“You won’t take me!” I screamed. I took another step back,
followed by another. Hideto looked at his watch in the dark, not to
see the time but to make a point. Kaori still held her hands up as she
walked towards me. The others watched and waited. They expected
this would end the same as all the others. I would show them they
were wrong.
Something in the trees behind the five hikers caught my eye. I
squinted before my eyes opened wide in horror. It was a person,
but… She was large. Too large. Her head disappeared in the
branches of the trees above, and all I could see was her white dress
blowing softly in the darkness. A shrill giggle reached my eyes,
something that apparently only I heard, and it was followed by a
single word that made my blood run cold.
“Die.”
 I threw the broom and ran for the water. Yet the moment my
foot touched its icy depths, something even colder grabbed my
ankle. Dark hair seemed to spread out beneath me, and before I
could stop myself, I went crashing face-first into the river. My nose
collided with a rock and blood burst forth, and the icy grip on my
ankle squeezed even tighter.
A crow cawed in the distance. It was followed by another, and
then another. It was the girl. The nameless girl who killed her mother
and then threw herself over the falls in despair. It had to be. But the
fleeting thought was gone as soon as I had it. The water turned dark.
Black. The icy waters swallowed me and churned, sending me
tumbling towards the edge. I barely had enough time to try to figure
out up from down, left from right, when suddenly I was free. Flying.
The falls seemed to freeze in time, and everything else with them.
Silence. Beautiful, peaceful silence.
Then pain exploded in my head as crows cawed all around and
everything went black again. A flash of red hot iron crushed my skull
and pierced my brain; only it wasn’t iron. It was rock, and as I stood
on the side of the river, watching the water tumble over my body, it
all hit me again. The others appeared behind me and Hideto put a
hand on my shoulder, patting me a few times.
“Seriously, dude, why do we have to do this every single night?”
“I don’t…”
“Give him a moment.” Kaori’s voice. She stepped up beside me,
her eyes glued to my body pierced on the jagged rock as well.
“I’m… I’m still down there, aren’t I?”
She nodded. They all were. We all were. I watched in horror as
the water from the falls continued to beat my broken body, and then
something barely visible in the darkness grabbed my ankle and
snatched me down into the depths in an instant. My heart caught in
my throat and Kaori grimaced.
“That never gets any nicer to see…” Chie said, shaking her
head.
“We did try to stop you,” Kaori said. “You really gotta snap out
of this. I get that it’s traumatic, but every time you see your own
death again and again, it seems to set this block in your memories.
You're forcing yourself to live it over and over again because you
can’t face the reality of it.”
I shook my head, unable to tear my eyes off the water. The
jagged rock where my body had just been. The blood that had been
there just moments ago was already gone, like it had never been
there to begin with. But it had. I fell over the edge of the waterfall. I
died on that very rock. And then… something… in the pit beneath it
snatched my body and pulled it down there. My remains were still
there. I could never move on until they were recovered. And I would
keep reliving my death, over and over, until I could finally face it.
“It’s been several years now, man. How are you still traumatised
by that? Aren’t you bored of dying over and over?” Hideto’s voice
faded into the background. There was something far more important
in front of me. Eyes. A single pair of eyes in the dark depths of the
water staring back at us. At me in particular. The eyes seemed to
grin and then disappeared.
There would be no escaping my fate. The terror that gripped my
heart held on too tight, and unable to accept the fact that I was
already dead, I would relive this moment over and over again. Not
always in the exact same manner; the details might differ, but the
story would always remain the same. Before I could stop myself, I
would find myself drawn to the top of the falls. Then something,
perhaps the nameless girl, would grab me and I would tumble. Or
maybe it was that woman in white in the trees. Who on earth was
she?
But either way, I would tumble right over the edge and onto that
rock and I would die to the sounds of crows cawing in the distance.
Then something would pull my body down into the depths and I
would see it. Each and every night I would see it again. The terror
gripping my heart forcing me to block the memory in a groundhog
day I could never escape from.
“Come on, Toshi. Let’s go sit by the fire. Maybe we’ll get lucky
and tonight will be the night that a real live body joins us, huh?”
They knew nobody would. Few people climbed Mount Yami
anymore. Not with the constant threat of landslides and crumbling
buildings everywhere. She was a ghost of her former self now, just
like us. Unable to move on and never to reach her former glory days
again. And we were stuck here with her.
Forever.
 Kibou River

“Don’t you think the name is a little on the nose?”

“What name?”
“Kibou River? Really? They named it after that legend where
you wish for something and it comes true?”
Ayaka raised an eyebrow as she looked at me. I shrugged. A
few of the boys from our class ran around near the banks of the river
nearby. A few nasty words were followed by a scuffle and I rolled my
eyes.
“What are they, ten?”
“You invited them,” Ayaka said.
“Don’t remind me…”
I’d been hoping to get some time alone with Taichi, but
naturally, his friends all dragged along as well. Which meant I had to
invite my friends too, and here we were, on the banks of Kibou River,
an unexpected mixer with far too many people for me to even talk to
Taichi, let alone get some time with him.
“This was a mistake…” I muttered. Ayaka sipped from her bottle
of tea and watched the boys run around with judgement written all
over her face.
“Well, if nothing else, this should help you get over your crush
on Taichi.”
I sighed and watched the boys for a moment. Taichi was tall,
handsome, smart, and good at sports. Your stereotypical perfect
man. All the girls at school had a crush on him, and yet he was still
single. Part of me wondered if there had to be a reason for that, but
then I convinced myself otherwise. He was always so busy with
study, with sports, with the various organisations he volunteered at
that of course he had no time for dating. I hoped to change that, but
it was starting to look less and less likely anything would happen
today. Not with his childish friends around.
Only one of the boys didn’t join in. Subaru. The stereotypical
gloomy kid. His hair hung over his sunken eyes, his skin was so pale
that it looked like it had never seen sunlight, and if he spoke, it was
little more than a grunt or mumble that made no sense. Why Taichi
was friends with him made no sense to me, but because Taichi
tolerated him, so did everyone else.
Subaru’s eyes roamed the area, like a trapped animal waiting to
escape its cage. If being here disgusted him that much, then he
should just go. He’d be doing everyone a favour. Me especially. Just
looking at him made my skin crawl. He probably stayed up late in his
room researching curses and killing animals. Gross.
“Hey Ayaka, come swimming with us!” one of Taichi’s cohort
called out as two of the other boys wrestled on the ground. It was the
season for it, and the forest was uncomfortably warm, but… Kibou
River was hardly the best place for swimming. Kibou River was one
of the largest rivers on Mount Yami, and it got its name, as Ayaka
said, from a legend that sprang up long ago. The source of the river
actually came from a shrine high up the mountain that was so old
nobody was quite sure when it was built. There were rumours that it
was actually one of the oldest shrines in the entire country, but with
no proof and no records, nobody knew for sure. Either way, the river
originated from those shrine grounds, and the shrine appeared to
have been built there for that reason (although some claimed it was
actually the other way around…).
Either way, Kibou River was sacred, and since ancient times,
people had used the waters to pray. Merely washing yourself in the
river could cleanse you of evil, and keeping some in a small vial that
you carried with you at all times could also ward off bad luck. But
that wasn’t what the river was most famous for. No, that was the
Wishing Ritual.
Again, nobody knew when it started or how long it had been
around, but if you wrote your wish on a piece of paper, folded it into a
boat, and then set it out with a candle in the middle, then your wish
would be granted. As simple as that. At least, it was supposed to be.
The river was rather wide, deep, and raging at points. Even if you
could get the paper to float with a candle on board, it usually sank
before it got too far out. It was nothing more than an old superstition,
but that was the story behind the name. Kibou River. The river that
granted your wishes.
 I wished it would grant my wish and get rid of everyone but
Taichi. Pfft. I figured Mount Yami would be a suitable place for us to
hang out because it was generally deserted, but I honestly didn’t
think he would bring all his friends along. This was not going to plan
at all.
“You really want me to go in there? With you?” Ayaka’s
disgusted voice brought me back to reality. She cast her eyes over
the river and the boys with disdain.
“Come on, we came all this way, it would be a waste not to go
swimming!” the boy retorted. What was his name? Hayate? Hayato?
Something like that. Did it matter? He was tall like Taichi, but gangly,
not a single muscle on his body. Played basketball purely because of
his height and was never anything but crude to all the girls. He made
my skin crawl too. They all did. None of them were anything like
Taichi. Why was he friends with them?
When Ayaka said nothing, the boy finally shrugged. “Your loss!”
He jumped into the raging waters to the whoops and cheers of the
other boys. Even the ones wrestling in the mud stopped, threw off
their shirts, and then joined him.
“Holy crap that is cold!” one of them called out. They dove
under the surface and splashed each other with the apparently
freezing waters. Children. They were nothing more than children.
“Be careful out there,” Taichi called out. “I heard there are
hands under the water that reach out and pull swimmers down!” He
and his friends laughed.
“They would be the only hands wanting to touch Hayato then,”
another of his friends said with a laugh.
All this time, Subaru leaned against a tree and watched
everyone in silence with his creepy eyes. The others didn’t try to
include him, and he didn’t try to include himself either. Why were
they even friends? He was just there, being all creepy-like. What the
hell did Taichi see in him?
“Hey Taichi!” I called out. He turned to me, still laughing, and
my heart melted. I had to compose myself before I could continue. “I
uh, I heard there was a headless Jizo statue somewhere near here.
You wanna go find it?” He was into that sort of stuff. It did nothing for
me, but if it got the two of us away from everyone else for a while,
then…
“Yeah, sure!” he called out. He pushed one of his friends into
the water and, still laughing, ran over. I smiled at Ayaka and she
lifted her chin in silent approval. ‘Go do your thing. I’ll keep watch
here.’
“We’ll be back soon,” I whispered.
“Take your time. But you owe me.”
I nodded. Linking my arm through Taichi’s, I dragged him away
from the overpopulated area. Subaru’s hollow eyes watched us go.
Ugh. Getting away from him was a nice bonus, too.
“Why did you invite that creep?” I asked when we were out of
earshot.
“Who?” His brow furrowed. Even that was cute.
“Subaru.”
“Subaru? He’s harmless,” he said with a laugh. “He has no
other friends so I like to include him, that’s all.”
So it was pity, then? Taichi truly was too good for this world.
“Well, he creeps me out.”
“I know he looks a little creepy, but he’s harmless, really. I’ve
known him since we were kids. He’s got a rough home life, that’s all.
Most people wouldn’t understand.”
I said nothing. I didn’t want to understand. I just wanted him far
away from me.
“So where is this headless Jizo you spoke of?” he asked. I
pulled him a little tighter towards me so that our bodies were
touching. He smelt so nice. How was he so perfect in every way?
“I’m not sure. I heard it was somewhere around here. They say
that if you manage to find it, the Jizo will allow you to make a wish as
well, but you have to offer it something.”
“They sure were big into granting wishes around here, huh? I
wonder if any of them actually worked.”
“Do you believe in those things?” I certainly didn’t, but if Taichi
did, then that was charming too.
“Well, kinda. Not really. I dunno. I find the stories interesting, is
all. And if they work, all the better, right?” His voice rose like a child
at the end as he smiled. I was definitely in love with him. My heart
pounded like a little girl.
“Taichi…”
“Hey look!” He let go of my arm and ran into the trees.
“Wait!” I ran after him and almost collided with his back. He
turned around, his face in full smile, and pointed at something on the
ground.
“Well, that was quick…” I was almost disappointed. A single tiny
Jizo statue sat at Taichi’s feet. It was missing a head. It wore a red
bib around its neck, but the head was nowhere to be seen.
“We gotta make a wish!”
“Yeah, sure… But we don’t have anything to offer it.”
Taichi removed the necklace from around his neck and placed it
before the statue. I took off the cheap ring Ayaka had given me for
my birthday the year before. She wouldn’t notice, it would be fine.
My only wish was to be with Taichi. He closed his eyes and put
his hands together in prayer before his chest. What was it that he
was wishing for? I closed my eyes and did the same. ‘I wish that it
could be just Taichi and I. I wish everyone else would go away and
leave us alone.’
“What did you wish for?” he asked, opening his eyes.
“Well, if I told you, it wouldn’t come true, would it?”
“No, I suppose it wouldn’t. But how cool is that? We actually
found it!”
More like it found us. We’d barely been walking a few minutes
when we stumbled upon it. Odd. Too odd. Mount Yami was a big
place. What were the odds of us stumbling upon the infamous
headless Jizo just like that?
“Come on, we should head back, you don’t wanna leave your
friend back there all alone, do you?”
Ayaka would be fine, but I couldn’t exactly say that. That would
make me sound selfish. Instead, I forced a smile and nodded. “Yeah,
let’s go back.” If that headless Jizo actually held any power, then it
better find a way for Taichi and I to be alone together again, dammit.
But still, it weighed on my mind. What did Taichi wish for? What
could the most perfect being on the planet possibly want? If I knew,
then I could find a way to give it to him, and then he’d have no
choice but to take notice of me…
“You’re back quick,” Ayaka said with a raised eyebrow. I
grimaced in response.
“Not by choice…”
“Did you… you know?”
“We were only gone like 10 minutes.”
“Hey, that’s more than enough time for some men…”
“Ayaka!”
“What?”
“No… We found that stupid headless Jizo statue.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you wish for?”
“What do you think?”
“Uh huh. And Taichi?”
“I dunno. He didn’t say.”
Silence fell between us and my eyes drifted to Subaru again.
He hadn’t moved, still leaning against that tree and watching the
other boys with the eyes of a wild animal just waiting to escape.
“Why is he still here?”
“Because your lover boy invited him.”
“Well, I wish he’d leave.”
“I wish they all would.” Ayaka placed a hand on my shoulder
and then smiled. “And if one more gross, disgusting, smelly boy tries
to put a hand on me again, I’m going to toss them into the river
myself. You owe me big for this.”
“I know. I’m sorry. When Taichi said he wanted to bring a friend
or two, I didn’t think he meant… all of them.”
“He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes, huh?”
I said nothing, but when I looked back over, my heart jumped.
Subaru was gone. “Well, maybe one wish has been granted, at
least.”
“Hey, what the hell, man, did you just grab my ankle?” one of
the boys said from the water. Hayato, was it?
“Dude, my hands are right here, what do you think?”
 “Well, something just grabbed my ankle.”
“It was probably seaweed or something.”
“No way, it was fingers, man. What the hell?” Hayato started
swimming for shore, panic all over his face. His friends laughed at
him, but he climbed up on the bank, ripping out grass as he did, and
then scooted across the mud, madly slapping at his ankle as he did
so.
“There’s nothing there, it was probably just a fish or something.”
“I’m telling you, something grabbed me!”
“Big baby’s scared of fishies, wah wah!”
Hayato’s friends made fun of him, but the terror on his face was
real. Whether it really was a hand that grabbed him or not, he
believed it.
“That’s what they get for swimming in there…” Ayaka muttered,
crossing her arms. “Children. The whole lot of them.”
Taichi cast a glance at us and shrugged. He didn’t seem to
notice that Subaru was gone either.
“Screw this, I’m going back to the car.”
“Hayato, wait!”
Hayato did not wait but instead stormed off through the forest,
the same direction Taichi and I had taken when we went to find the
Headless Jizo. One of his friends climbed out of the water and
chased him while another lazed about. Well, that was two more of
them gone. A good start. Maybe my wish was about to be granted!
“It might get you too if you don’t get out,” Taichi joked with his
remaining friend, but his friend just put his hands behind his head
and floated in the turbulent waters, giving Taichi a big smile.
“It’s welcome to try!” he called out. “You should get in here, the
water’s great!”
“Nah man, I’m not a very good swimmer.”
“Pfft. Weren’t you on the swim team in junior high?”
“There were three of us. We never left the school’s kiddie pool.”
“Gotta learn sometime!”
“Yeah, not today…”
Suddenly a small piece of paper floated by Taichi’s friend in the
river. All eyes turned to it, and then watched as it continued to float
by. The temperature seemed to drop several degrees all at once.
The hairs on my arms stood on end. What the hell?
The paper floated by and then got swallowed by the current
roughly 10 metres away. There was a scream from the forest. We all
turned to look, and Taichi started running. It was Hayato.
“What the hell?” Ayaka said. We quickly followed.
Hayato lay on the dirt path a short distance away, his other
friend kneeling beside him, trembling and face pale. Hayato’s leg
was broken, the bone poking out roughly just above his ankle. But
that wasn’t even the worst part. No, that was the dark imprint around
the bottom of his leg. The imprint that looked just like a hand…
“What the… What happened?” Taichi asked, his voice
panicked.
“I dunno!” his friend screamed. “I was running to catch up to
Hayato when he suddenly fell and started screaming. I guess he
tripped in a hole or something!”
There were no holes in the ground, and through his pained
screams, Hayato shook his head. “Something grabbed me!
Something god damn grabbed me!”
“There’s nobody here…” Taichi said. Hayato flailed and
thumped the ground. Blood poured out of the wound where white
bone poked through the skin.
“I think I’m gonna be sick…”
Another of Taichi’s friends pulled up and stopped abruptly when
he saw the carnage. “Oh god…”
“Alright, look, you and Yuutaro help Hayato back to the car,
okay? We need to get him to the hospital. I’ll go back and get Sou.”
“We’ll come with you,” I said. “All our stuff’s back by the river.”
Taichi nodded and we ran back, Hayato’s screams fading into
the distance behind us. Well, this wasn’t exactly how I planned to get
Taichi alone. What a horrible day. I certainly wouldn’t have his
attention all to myself now that his friend had gone and broken his
ankle. Ugh. He couldn’t have done this some other time? Really?
“Sou!” Taichi screamed as he got back. His friend was nowhere
to be seen. The river was empty.
“Sou? Shit.”
 Something gripped my arm tightly. I jumped. It was Ayaka.
“I don’t like this…”
I shook my head. No, me neither.
“Sou’s gone,” Taichi said. The words were directed at us, but he
didn’t look in our direction. He was throwing towels around on the
ground like Sou might be hiding under them, and then he ran over to
the river’s edge and looked both ways. “Sou!”
No response.
“Hey… What about Subaru?” Ayaka called out. Taichi finally
turned to look at us and then his face went pale.
“Oh no…”
“…Oh no what?” Ayaka said.
“Shit!”
Taichi took off running, but it wasn’t too long until his screams
tore through the forest as well. “I need some help!”
Ayaka and I took off running. Taichi’s screams of “no, oh god
no” echoed around us. When we finally reached him, Ayaka stopped
and screamed.
Sou’s broken body lay on the side of the river, his neck
unnaturally twisted 180 degrees from where it was supposed to be.
The world seemed to waver. Ayaka vomited on the ground beside
me, but it sounded distant. Unreal. None of this was really
happening. I shook my head. No. This was a bad dream. All a bad
dream. Not ten minutes ago we’d all been laughing and having fun,
and although it wasn’t the exact type of fun I was after, sure, we
were all… alive.
I’d never seen a dead body before. It didn’t feel real. Just
moments ago, life had been coursing through those veins. He was
swimming in the river. I remembered the smile he gave Taichi when
the other boys left. That carefree smile on a head that was now
twisted 180 degrees, buried face-down in the mud as his bare chest,
exposed to the sky, lay frozen like a rock. No air moved through
those lungs. It never would again. It was so… surreal. How could a
life end just like that? It didn’t make any sense.
Taichi pried something from Sou’s hands and his entire body
trembled. He stood up, his movements slow and deliberate, and his
face turned visibly more and more pale as he read what was on the
piece of paper. On the ground by Sou’s hand lay something else.
A candle.
“What the hell…?” Taichi looked up at us, Ayaka still kneeling
on the ground and me feeling like my knees were about to give.
“What the hell is this?”
There was writing on the paper. I forced my legs to move, like a
shaky mannequin stumbling through the air, and tried to avoid the
lifeless body on the ground as I moved closer to see it. There were
dark letters scribbled on the wet page. My heart pounded wildly and
then threatened to stop when I finally saw what it said.
“May Sou suffer a tragic, inexplicable accident for all the pain
he has caused me.”
“Is this someone’s idea of a sick joke?” Taichi held the offending
piece of paper up between his thumb and forefinger. “What the hell is
this?”
“Subaru…” I muttered. It had to be. Oh god… He did this. He
wasn’t just a creep, he was a murderer! He attacked Hayato
somehow and then ran back to finish off Sou when we all ran to see
what the problem was. The creep was a psychopath! And this… the
paper and the candle… It was the legend of Kibou River. He planted
them to confuse us, to throw us off his scent. Well, he was an idiot.
He was literally the only person here who could have attacked both
boys.
“Subaru?” Taichi spat the word out, confused, and then his face
dropped. Suddenly it all made sense to him too. Yes, Subaru. He did
this. His creepy little friend was a murderer. He’d injured one of his
friends and actually killed another. Whatever his idea of a prank was,
he went way too far. The sight of Sou lying on the ground near my
feet threatened to bring up my lunch again too.
“But what the hell is this?” Taichi said, picking up the candle.
“And this?” Again he dangled the piece of paper between his finger
and thumb, as though the mere thought of touching it disgusted him.
“It’s the legend of Kibou River,” I said, my voice trailing off at the
end. A stupid superstition, but I honestly never thought he would try
to use it to pass off a murder. An actual murder. Sou was dead. My
brain swum. My vision threatened to leave me. Police. We had to call
the police. But what to do with Sou? Leave him there? As evidence?
He wasn’t evidence. He was a human being. Or, he used to be. Oh
god, nothing made any sense…
“The legend of… what?”
“Y-You write your wish on a piece of paper and send it
downriver like a boat. You’re supposed to place a lit candle in it, and
then if it doesn’t sink right away, your wish will be granted…”
I didn’t think the colour could drain any further from his face,
and yet it did. Our eyes turned simultaneously to something floating
by in the water.
Another boat with a candle in it. It bobbed up and down gently
in the waves, taking its time, and then started towards the churning
waters further downstream.
“Oh no. No no no. Shit!” Taichi jumped into the water fully
clothed.
“Taichi, no!”
He swam for the little boat, but it was much faster than him. It
bobbed under the water and then poked back through the surface
again. Somehow the paper was still floating and the candle still lit. It
didn’t make any sense. None of this did.
“Taichi! What are you doing? It’s too dangerous! Get back
here!” The waters quickly turned into rapids, and the river widened a
considerable distance before narrowing again. “Taichi! There are
rocks over there! Taichi!”
He didn’t seem to hear me. He reached for the boat and then
his head disappeared under the raging waters. He resurfaced
moments later, gasping for air, and then reached for the boat again.
This continued, over and over.
“Taichi!”
“It’s no use, you know.” A deep voice beside me made me
jump. I almost tripped over Sou’s corpse as I backed away. Subaru.
It was like he appeared out of thin air. “He’s going to die. It’s already
too late.”
“W-What… What are you doing?” The words sounded stupid
even as they came out of my mouth, but that was all that came to
mind. ‘What are you doing?’ Indeed.
“Taichi was the worst of them all. He puts on an act, you know?
The perfect star pupil, the ace athlete, the charitable son, but that’s
not him at all. Not even close.”
I furrowed my brow. This was all over some jealousy?
“I know you won’t believe me…” Subaru lifted his shirt and I
quickly turned away, but before I did, I caught sight of something. I
turned back, screwing my face up and not wanting to look, but like a
train wreck, also unable to look away. Subaru’s chest and stomach
were covered in cuts, bruises, and scars. Endless scars. Some
looked thin and long, like cuts from a knife. Others were round and
stretched, like from the end of a lit cigarette. A dark purple bruise
covered a large part of his left side, while a fading yellow one stood
out painfully on his chest.
“I don’t…”
“Your lover boy over there isn’t as perfect as he makes out to
be. He’s a bully. A monster.” Subaru pulled his shirt back down and
his eyes narrowed with rage. “I’m far from the only one, but I doubt
the others get it quite as bad as I have.” Then he turned to me and
what amounted to a smile pulled the corners of his lips up. “I have to
thank you, you know. I couldn’t have organised this better myself.”
“W-What do you mean…”
“I know you’re not dumb. I saw you head off to find the
Headless Jizo. You know the legend of this river just as well as I do.
Well, it’s not just a legend.” He looked down at Sou and pushed his
limp shoulder with his foot. “This one right here,” he pointed to his
side, “that was his doing. Trying to get in Taichi’s good books. They
all do it. It doesn’t stop. It never stops. Every single one of them…”
His words trailed off. Then he smiled again. “But that all ends today.”
Taichi fumbled through the water, desperately reaching for the
paper. With each and every struggled breath he took, he took longer
and longer to emerge from the water. I could say nothing, do nothing,
as I watched him gasp for air and reach fruitlessly for the boat that
was getting further and further away from him in the rapids.
“He’ll never reach it,” Subaru said, admiring his own handiwork.
“The river won’t let him.”
 “Y-You’re a murderer!” The words sounded childish as they left
my lips. Petulant. But petulant or not, they were true.
“Am I? I haven’t touched any of them. Hayato, well, he tripped
and fell. I had nothing to do with that. And Sou here, well, he got
extremely unlucky climbing out of the river after he went to pick that
little boat up. And Taichi, well, you can see for yourself.” Subaru held
his hand out, pointing to Taichi struggling in the river. “I never
touched a single one of them. All tragic accidents.”
“You made this happen! You! Even if you didn’t touch them, it’s
your fault!”
“And who’s going to convict me?” He turned his eyes from
Taichi to me, another dark expression settling over his face. “You
really think an urban legend is going to stand up in court? There’s no
evidence that I did anything here. In fact, you and your dumb little
friend over there are actually witnesses, proof that I never touched a
single one of them. No, they made their own fates, and I guarantee
you there are going to be few people who feel sad when they learn
about what happened here today. It was a long time coming, and if it
wasn’t me, well, it would have been someone else. They were
bullies. Monsters. Psychopaths in the making. I’m doing everyone a
favour. You should be thanking me.”
He stopped talking for a moment and then jerked his chin
towards the river. “Ah, look. It appears he’s about to take his final
breath. Good. I didn’t want to miss that.”
“Taichi!” I screamed. He struggled to reach for the boat in the
rapids, his head bobbing in and out of the water violently as it
washed over him. Each time he went under, it took him longer to
emerge.
“We have to do something!” I turned to Ayaka, but she held her
hands up defensively.
“I can’t swim…” Panic flooded her eyes.
“Taichi!” I screamed again, running to the river back. He was
moving further and further downstream, almost faster than I could
keep up with on the banks. “Just leave it! Taichi! Get out of the
water!”
 But he didn’t listen, or maybe he couldn’t hear me anymore. His
hand reached out, finally gripped the boat, and he held it up
triumphantly… before disappearing under the water. Subaru’s
laughter filled the air behind me, as did Ayaka’s choked sobs.
No. Not like this… Taichi wasn’t a bully. It was that creep’s fault!
It was all his fault!
“Taichi!”
His body surfaced further downstream. He floated face down in
the water, his hand still gripping the boat. I ran after him, leaving the
other two behind me, and slowly the currents washed him back
towards the riverbank. I reached out for his arm and pulled him up
the best I could.
“Taichi!”
There was no response. I checked his pulse. Nothing.
“Taichi!!”
I screamed. I cried. I brought my fist down on his chest and
attempted CPR. Nothing worked. Of course it didn’t. He was dead.
He was long dead. The river had taken him, like it had taken the
other boys. I pried the piece of paper from his hands. The piece of
paper he had died for.
“May Mina’s wish come true.”
“…W-What’s that supposed to mean?” I was expecting
something like, “I hope Taichi dies a horrible death” or “I hope Taichi
and all his friends drown.” Not… this. What did that even mean?
May Mina’s wish come true… I looked around. Taichi and I were
finally alone. The one thing I’d been hoping for all day.
I held his cold body closer. The only thing I’d wanted all day
was to be alone with him. And now here we were. Alone and
together, Taichi in my arms at long last.
Tears fell from my cheeks onto his cold chest.
Not like this. No, not like this…
 Shiro Peak

“Are you sure we have everything?”

“For the last time, Takeru, yes.”
“Look, I just don’t want us to reach the peak and then find out
we forgot food or water or blankets or—”
“Takeru.”
“What?”
“We’ll be fine.”
So then, why wouldn’t my heart stop beating so fast?
Something bad was going to happen and instinctively I knew it. Miu
stared at me until I smiled and nodded. A forced smile, but she
wouldn’t get off my back until I did. She was the boss in this
relationship, or so our friends claimed, but I just liked to be prepared
for any eventuality. That was all.
“You ready to go?” Miu turned to the others in our group. Not a
massive group this time, but not the smallest we’d ever put together
either. Including myself and Miu, there were five of us. Miu’s best
friend Yuka, Yuka’s boyfriend Ryunosuke, and his buddy Shingo.
Our goal? Shiro Peak. Well, not Shiro Peak in general; more
specifically, the highest point of Mount Yami, the very top of Shiro
Peak. There was a flag there signifying how high above sea level
you were, and those who made it always wrote their name on the
pole in commemoration. For some strange reason, few ever made it,
and the death toll near the peak was high. Nobody could ever figure
out why. It certainly wasn’t the highest mountain in the country, nor
were conditions there particularly dangerous. And yet, rescue team
after rescue team was sent in to inevitably retrieve the bodies of
those who never returned.
“It’s the nopperabo.”
“Huh?”
I jumped as someone placed a hand on my shoulder. Shingo’s
smiling face leaned over from behind me.
“You’re worried about the nopperabo, aren’t you?”
“N-No, why would I be worried about a stupid urban legend?” I
tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a choke.
 “It’s not just a legend, you know?” He stepped out around me
and then lifted his pack from the ground. “I know someone who
actually saw it.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true.”
“Shingo…” Miu turned her disdainful eyes towards him. He
shouldered the pack and shrugged a few times.
“What?”
“Do you really have to?”
“Have to what?”
“Tell this story again.”
“Yes, yes I do, actually.”
Miu rolled her eyes and started towards the track. “Well, when
the rest of you want to join us, we’ll actually be climbing the
mountain.” She quickly cast a glance in my direction, raised her
eyebrows, and then started up the track. That was Miu for “follow me
or you can deal with that mess yourself.”
“S-She’s right,” I said, putting my head down, grabbing my
pack, and quickly following her. Shingo didn’t miss a beat and fell in
line behind me. Yuka and Ryunosuke soon followed.
“It was around this time last year…” Shingo continued,
speaking to my back as we started up the trail. If all went according
to plan, we should reach the peak right before sunset, allowing us
one of the rarest and most beautiful sights in the entire country, and
then we could spend the night in the nearby cabin before returning
the next morning. If all went according to plan, that was…
“My buddy and his friend were climbing the mountain, right?”
Shingo continued, either oblivious or not caring that no-one was
paying him any attention. “Just the two of them. Everything went fine
until they neared the peak. Then it suddenly started snowing, right?
Even though it was summer.”
“That’s not that weird,” Yuka retorted from the back.
“Shh,” Shingo hushed her angrily. “You’re ruining the mood.”
“Why did you bring him along?”
“You said you wanted people…”
 I could hear Miu snicker up ahead as Yuka and Ryunosuke
argued behind us.
“Anyway, they hear this voice through the snow,” Shingo
continued, “even though they hadn’t met anyone else on the way up.
They figured maybe someone got there ahead of them; no big deal.
So they call out. ‘Helloooo?’ But there was no response. They just
hear what sounds like someone whispering on the wind and
intermittent laughter.”
“And let me guess, as they got closer they realised the man had
no face?” Yuka interrupted.
“Yes, exactly!” Shingo took the comment in his stride. I ducked
under a few branches and we emerged from the forest track onto the
main mountain path that would take us the rest of the way up. All
going according to plan, of course… So why did it feel like something
terrible was going to happen? My skin crawled and I couldn’t shake
the feeling.
“They walked a few metres ahead and then they spotted the
figure in the distance. Something dark in the white snow falling all
around them. They kept calling out, but the figure didn’t turn around.
Just stood there in the snow. So they thought they might be in
trouble and ran over. But when they tapped on the person’s shoulder
and they turned around… it wasn’t a person at all.” Shingo’s voice
lowered. I looked over my shoulder and he was hunched over with a
grin on his face, his hands held like claws at face height.
“He had no face. Like, nothing at all. Just a blank, pure white
slate. That’s why they call it Shiro Peak, you know? It’s not because
it’s always covered in snow, it’s because of the man with no face
whose skin is pure white.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Yuka retorted. She smacked
Shingo’s pack with a branch she was carrying.
“Hey!” He cried.
“It’s been called Shiro Peak for hundreds of years. The dumb
nopperabo story is only recent.”
“No, it’s not,” Shingo replied, his voice rising like that of an
indignant child. “There are records of the man with no face in old
stories from hundreds of years ago.”
 “Oh yeah? And you heard those firsthand, did you?”
“Look, it’s not my fault you don’t like to read. I get it, the little
letters are too much for your big brain to handle…”
There was a thwack and then Shingo screamed again. Miu
stopped in her tracks and I bumped into her pack. She turned around
and her eyes made even me shrink, although her gaze wasn’t turned
towards me for once.
“Can you two quit it already?”
“What?” Yuka and Shingo replied at the same time.
“You’re giving me a headache.”
“I have aspirin for that, you know?” Shingo ruffled around in his
pocket and held up a packet of pills.
“Do you have a pill that will shut you up?” Miu replied without
missing a beat. Ryunosuke smothered the laugh that threatened to
burst forth from his lips. The smile on Shingo’s lips also slowly
dropped.
“Sorry…”
Miu continued walking. “That story is stupid, anyway. A
nopperabo? Really? What are you, 12?”
“Sorry…” Shingo muttered again.
“I heard there’s actually some weird sort of magnetic
interference at the top of the mountain, and that’s why so many
people seem to get lost up there,” Ryunosuke chimed in after
everyone had fallen silent. “Like, a localised Bermuda Triangle or
something. It causes people to get dizzy and lose their way. They
think they hear voices and run off and then they get lost and…
yeah…”
“Sounds more likely than a nopperabo,” Miu called out from the
front of the line. “But it’s more likely that people just aren’t prepared
or get caught in bad weather. I checked the weather before we left
today. We should be fine, but just in case, we have enough with us
to bear a night in the cold even without a cabin.” At that, she looked
over her shoulder directly at me. “Alright?”
“Y-Yes…” I nodded. She turned back to the front and then
silence fell over us again. Only 12 more hours of this. Fun. Very
fun…
 “Hey, we should stop by Karasu Falls on our way back,” Shingo
broke the silence after we’d been walking for what felt like an hour or
two. I was drenched in sweat but too afraid to break the silence
myself. Besides, I didn’t have much to say. I just wanted to reach the
peak, see the sunset with Miu by my side, and then find somewhere
warm and cosy (and safe!) to sleep.
“Karasu Falls? Why, because it’s supposed to be haunted as
well?” Yuka’s voice again. She was dating Ryunosuke, but she had
an antagonistic relationship with his best friend that, to some, might
seem like flirting, or at least, a mutual interest in each other. Neither
would ever admit to that, of course, but that was certainly how it
seemed on the outside…
“Of course!” Shingo replied with a happy lilt in his voice. “They
say that a beautiful young maiden once died there, and under the
right circumstances, you can even see her spirit rise from the water,
her hair gleaming like a wet crow, which is how the falls got their
name, of course…”
“Aren’t you just an encyclopedia of useless information?”
“Once again, I’m sorry that reading is so difficult for you. They
really should have helped you work on that when you were in the
first grade…”
Thwack.
“Ryunosuke, your girlfriend is violent and abusive and I
honestly don’t know what you see in her.”
Thwack.
“Stop that!”
“Both of you stop it!” Once again Miu stepped in like an angry
mother tired of her squabbling children.
“Sorry…”
“Sorry…”
“Let’s just make it to the peak first before worrying about stops
on the way home, yeah?”
“Yes ma’am…”
“Sure…”
An awkward silence filled the air, and then I heard a voice by
my ear. “Is she always like that? Like, you know, all the time?”
 I frowned and swatted Shingo’s face away. He smiled and
waggled his eyebrows a few times.
“I mean, I get it, man. I’m into that too.”
“It’s not…” I couldn’t get the words out. Why was my heart
racing so much?
“All good, man. You don’t need to say a thing. My lips are
sealed.” Shingo made a zipping action across his lips and then fell in
line behind me again. I could hear him snickering every now and
then, but otherwise, silence surrounded us. Beautiful, yet off-putting
silence…
Why was my skin still crawling? It didn’t make sense. This was
our first time climbing to Shiro Peak, but it wasn’t our first time at
Mount Yami. The mountain had fallen out of favour in recent years,
sure, but we had been here numerous times. It was a regular old
mountain with an interesting and checkered history. But weren’t they
all like that?
We stopped for lunch shortly after midday and then continued
on our way. Yuka and Shingo were at each other’s throats the whole
time, so much so that I was starting to wonder if they were actually
dating each other and Ryunosuke was just their cover for some
reason. Miu said nothing, but she didn’t have to. Her disapproving
glares spoke volumes. “Why do you even like her?” someone once
asked me. We’d been dating since high school, but even then we
were polar opposites. I was the quiet kid who always studied and
read, and she was… well, many might have called her the class
bitch, but to me she was someone who always stood up for herself,
and that was what I liked about her. I was too scared to ever stand
up for myself and so I admired that she could, and did, often. And
loudly.
“So, what time’s the sunset?” Yuka asked from behind when we
started walking again.
“After 7:30. As long as we get there around 7, we’ll have plenty
of time,” Miu replied. She checked her watch and continued walking
without losing her stride. “As long as we keep this pace, we should
be there with plenty of time.”
 “Are you a machine?” Shingo panted behind me. “Because that
would explain a lot.”
“Don’t come if you can’t keep up,” Miu replied without turning
around. “You’re welcome to wait here till we get back.”
“Are you mad? And miss out on the nopperabo?”
I could almost hear Miu’s eyes rolling. I smiled. She was so cute
when she did that.
“And am I the only one who needs to pee?”
“I’m good.”
“Hold it.”
“Go piss in the woods.”
“You’re all machines. Come on, I gotta go.”
“No-one’s stopping you.”
“Oh, but you won’t wait for me either, will you?”
“Nope.”
“You’re all monsters.”
“You should have gone while we were eating.”
“Coulda, shoulda… Look, if I wet myself, that’s on all of you.”
“Doesn’t bother me.”
“It will when you have to smell it.”
“You know, if there is a god, then he will send a nopperabo just
to shut you up.” Miu stopped ahead of us and again I walked into her
pack. She turned around, eyebrow raised, and focused her glare on
Shingo. “Seriously, do you ever shut the hell up?”
“Well… the silence makes me uncomfortable.”
“Good. I’ll keep that in mind next time so we don’t invite you
again.”
Shingo’s face dropped. Even for me that felt a little mean, but I
also understood where she was coming from. Miu was no nonsense,
and that was probably part of the reason she was still dating me. I
didn’t speak a lot, therefore I didn’t bother her.
She started walking again and Shingo turned to look at me. I
forced an apologetic smile, but he said nothing. He fell in line and an
even more awkward silence surrounded us as the air also grew
colder. We were getting higher, and within a few hours we should
see the peak. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I
couldn’t get the image of the man with the blank white face out of my
head. Was there really a nopperabo up there? Would he kill us like
the stories claimed? Numerous people did die up there. That was
why so few people bothered trying to reach the peak these days.
Would a man with no face appear out of the snow and kill us all, one
by one, leaving our bodies lying in the elements until search and
rescue teams finally found us with looks of terror etched into our
frozen faces?
I shook my head. No. Miu was right. That was stupid. Utterly
stupid. There was no such thing as monsters. Ryunosuke’s idea of
weird magnetic interference made more sense than that.
So then… why? I looked around. The air continued to grow
colder and there were spots of snow on the ground and in the trees
as well. It was starting to feel less and less strange that something
unknown, something inhuman, might rush out of the trees and kill us.
Maybe a tengu. Maybe a crazed maniac who fled society and lived
amongst the trees. Maybe a ghost… or a nopperabo.
No. No way. That was stupid. Even thinking it was silly.
Yet as we walked, something in the distance caught my eye.
Something tall. Incredibly tall. And wearing… a sun dress? My
breath caught in my throat and I opened my mouth to ask the others
if they saw it too, but then I thought better of it. No, I was just seeing
things. I rubbed my eyes, shook my head, and looked again. It was
gone.
I was just tired, scared, and seeing things. Yeah. Miu would just
make fun of me if I told her what I thought I’d seen.
We continued walking, mostly in silence, occasionally with the
banter of Yuka and Shingo entering our ears, and before long the
greenery started to make way for more and more white. Somehow,
even in the summer months, Mount Yami was always topped with
snow. Nobody understood it; that was just how it was. The
temperature dropped, but other than a short toilet stop (for Miu, not
Shingo), we continued unimpeded. If we kept at our current pace,
we’d easily reach the peak before the sun went down.
Although it was hard to see from most of the upper areas of
Mount Yami, you could apparently see the sunset behind Kiyomizu
Bay from the very top, and it was even more gorgeous than the
lower (and closer) regions of the mountain. I prayed we’d be able to
see it; there were surprisingly few photos of the sunset from Shiro
Peak. I’d only seen one, and it looked… well, fake. The waters were
black and the sun looked like it was being swallowed. Not
disappearing behind the water, but actually being swallowed into it. It
was creepy, but definitely a good photoshop.
“How much further?” Yuka asked from behind me.
“Shouldn’t be too much further ahead,” Miu replied. “Just a little
further.”
For a moment, I wondered how she would know. She’d never
been to the top of Shiro Peak before, had she? She certainly hadn’t
told me if she had, and that seemed like the sort of thing you’d talk
about if you were, you know, going to climb to the peak.
Shivers. Why wouldn’t they go away?
Uneasy silence filled the chilly air. As gross and sweaty as it
had been on the lower reaches of the mountain, I was glad for my
warm clothes now. Shingo huffed and puffed behind me, but
otherwise the only sound I could hear was that of the wind and…
“Snow?” This time it was Ryunosuke. “Huh. I thought it was
supposed to be sunny and clear today?”
My stomach dropped. If it was snowing, then there was
definitely no way we’d be able to see the sunset through all of this.
Yet there it was, clear as day. Snow. A little at first, but the higher we
climbed, the more it fell. Soon we were pushing through a grey haze
that was far colder than it had any right to be. Was it always this cold
up here? Other mountains I’d climbed never felt like this. It felt like
my nose hairs might snap off at any moment.
“M-Miu, maybe we should take a break… or… go back down…”
I suggested, yet she kept walking without missing a beat.
“You can go back down if you want. I’m going to the peak.”
“Miu…”
Nobody said a word. This wasn’t it. Everything was wrong. I felt
it before we even set out, and this was it. This was why my skin
crawled. I didn’t know why, exactly, but this was definitely it. My
instincts screamed to get away from here as fast as possible.
 “It’s the nopperabo…” Shingo muttered.
“Are you still on about that?” Yuka.
“What? It’s exactly like the story. A group of climbers. An
unseasonable blizzard as they near the peak… If we spot a figure in
the distance, I’m sorry, but you guys are on your own.”
“Very manly.”
“More manly than dying.”
Finally Miu stopped and turned around. The smile on her face
made my breath catch in my throat.
“Would the both of you kindly shut the fuck up?”
Her lips smiled, but her eyes didn’t. Shingo gulped visibly
beside me and then Miu started on her way again. He looked at me
and then back at Yuka and Ryunosuke. Nobody said a word. Not
even I’d seen Miu give that look before, and I’d seen her give a lot of
angry looks over the years…
“Maybe heading back down wouldn’t be the worst idea,
actually…”
“We’d never reach the bottom in time,” I said. As much as I
agreed with him and wanted to go back, it would only make matters
worse. “We’re better off sticking together.”
Shingo fell quiet after that. The snow grew heavier and the air
colder. We trudged through heavier and heavier snow on the ground,
and before long I had no idea which direction we were even heading.
It was up, sure, but there was no longer a path to follow. Miu never
missed a stride though. Wherever she was going, she seemed to
know the way.
“Miu…”
“What?”
“Where are we going?” I couldn’t hold it in any longer. Sunset
was only 20 minutes away according to my watch, yet it was already
getting dark and there was no sign of the peak, nor anywhere we
could stop to spend the night.
“The peak, of course.”
“…How do you know where that is?”
“Do you not trust me?” The words hung heavily in the air. I
couldn’t see her face, but I could imagine the look on it. It wasn’t
pleasant.
“Of course I do… but…”
“But what?” This time she stopped.
“Well, it’s snowing pretty heavily… and there’s no path…”
“So?” She still didn’t turn around.
“So… I was wondering how you know where we’re heading,
that’s all…”
“So you don’t trust me then?”
“I never said that…” Immediately I regretted bringing the topic
up. This was why I always stayed quiet.
“And yet you question me. Have I not led us all this way?”
“Miu…” Summoning up all my courage, I put a hand on her
shoulder. She turned around and I fell instantly to my backside. I
scrambled back, bumping into someone or something, and in
seconds I was back on my feet again. It was Yuka and Ryunosuke.
“What the hell?!”
Miu. It wasn’t Miu. It was… something else. It wore Miu’s face,
but it was definitely not my girlfriend. It looked and sounded just like
her, but it wasn’t her. The details were close, but just a little off. That
smile was never one I’d seen on her face before either, and the
pupils of her eyes seemed to sparkle in the darkness.
“W-Who are you?”
She laughed. “What a stupid question. I’m your girlfriend, of
course.”
“N-No you’re not…”
She took a step closer. The rest of us took a step back.
“If I’m not your girlfriend, then who am I?”
“Shit, it’s the nopperabo!” Shingo screamed. “I told you guys it
was true! Shit!”
Miu laughed. “Really? A nopperabo? Aren’t they supposed to
have blank faces or something stupid?”
Nobody said a word. It wasn’t Miu, but who… or what… was it?
And if that creature before us wasn’t Miu… then where was she?
“You know, I’ve always enjoyed larger groups like this,” the
creature wearing Miu’s face continued. She unloaded her pack and
rolled her shoulders a few times. “Stupidity seems to run more easily
the more people there are around.”
I struggled to swallow through my dry throat. My brain
screamed at me to run. My heart threatened to burst out of my chest.
My stomach knotted and twisted and threatened to bring my lunch
back up. Yet I couldn’t tear my eyes from her.
“No, you’re right. I’m sorry. I’m not your girlfriend. But don’t
worry, I’m sure she’s fine… Probably.”
A flame ignited deep inside me. I rushed the creature, but
before I could do anything, her hands tightened around my neck.
“Now, now, don’t be too hasty. You wouldn’t want to die before
seeing her again, would you?”
“What did you do to her?” I choked.
“Your pretty little girlfriend is sleeping it off. I think. I did whack
her a little harder than usual. She was a tough cookie, that one.”
I grabbed the creature’s wrists, but her grip on my neck was too
tight. It was like trying to move a steel bar. Was the creature a “her”
anyway? It wore Miu’s shape, but…
“Who are you?” I choked out again.
The creature’s eyes… Miu’s eyes… turned to me. Again they
sparkled. Not enough to notice at a glance, but if you looked closely,
you could see it. A darkness that wasn’t there before, and amongst
it, something that glittered. How had I missed it?
“Does it matter? You can call me a nopperabo if you’d like, that
doesn’t bother me. You can call me the kami-sama of the mountain if
you want, that doesn’t bother me either. You can call me whatever
you want. What does it matter? You’ll never comprehend what I truly
am.”
“What do you want?” Yuka screamed from behind me. I turned
my head the best I could and saw Ryunosuke standing with a pocket
knife trembling before him. His other hand held Yuka’s arm, keeping
her back. Shingo had either run or was behind them, but either way, I
couldn’t see him.
“What do I want? So few people ask me that… I suppose I don’t
give them the chance. That’s fine. What I want…” her eyes turned
back to me, “is you.”
 “M-Me?”
“Yes. Well, more technically, all of you. I do get so bored up
here.”
The face in front of me shifted, twisting and morphing into
something else. The creature’s stature changed, shifting from Miu’s
tiny height to something larger. Broader shoulders. When it was
done, it was no longer Miu holding me but Shingo.
“So, let’s play a game.” The creature threw me to the ground
and rushed someone behind me. Yuka screamed, but it wasn’t her. I
turned and Shingo looked down at blood on his hands. His own
blood. The other Shingo grinned. The creature pulled its hand out of
Shingo’s stomach and he dropped to the ground, blood gurgling out
of his mouth. “You sure do talk a lot, you know? I’ve been wanting to
do that for hours.”
Hours? When did… and then it hit me. The only time Miu had
been out of my sight was her toilet break. Which meant… we’d been
following this creature for a better portion of the day. Miu was all the
way back down the mountain!
“The rest of you. Ten seconds. Who will I look like next? Well,
that’s for you to find out, isn’t it? Go!”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I took off running through the
snow. Yuka and Ryunosuke took off in another direction. As long as
they stayed together, they would be okay. As for me, well, I could no
longer trust either of them. I couldn’t trust any of them. Only myself.
By the time I was done running, I realised I was well and truly
alone, and I had no idea where I was. Snowfall made it hard to see a
few metres ahead of me, and I had nothing on me but the clothes on
my back. Not enough to survive a night in the cold this high up. Even
if the creature, whatever it was, didn’t find me… chances were good
I was going to die anyway.
My thoughts drifted to Miu. Was she okay? What did that thing
do to her? How did I not notice sooner? Was it really a nopperabo?
God, did that even matter? The creature itself even said it didn’t
matter. I shook my head to dispel all the useless thoughts.
A figure appeared in the darkness ahead of me. I stopped in my
tracks. Was it the creature? Yuka? Ryunosuke? I couldn’t trust any of
them. How could I tell it was really them?
“Takeru?”
My heart jumped into my throat. Miu. It was Miu’s voice.
“Mi—” I caught myself before I voiced the word. No. It wasn’t
her. It was the creature messing with me again.
“Takeru? Where are you?”
Miu was back down the mountain. There was no way she could
have caught up by now, even supposing she was alive. I choked
back a sob. I couldn’t stop shivering, and my stomach rumbled
loudly. Why didn’t I listen to my instincts when they told me this was
a bad idea? Why couldn’t I just stand up to Miu once in my life and
tell her no, I don’t want to do this? Now look where it had gotten us.
Shingo dead. Miu injured or dead as well somewhere down the
mountain. Yuka and Ryunosuke potentially dead. And me next
unless I did something fast.
I had to get the creature before it got me. I edged to the left as it
moved right. If I could get behind it before it noticed me, then I
could…
I grabbed the knife in my pocket. Slowly, quietly, I opened the
blade and gripped it tight enough to hurt my palm. It hurt Miu. It killed
Shingo. It would pay. Whatever it was, it had to be able to die.
“Takeru?” The sound came from my right. It was Miu’s voice,
but it wasn’t. Anger flared within me again. I continued circling to the
left, making my way slowly behind it in the snow. I could only see an
outline in the distance. Gripping the knife, I edged slowly towards it.
The creature kept calling out my name, and each time it made my
blood boil even more. How dare you. How dare you take her face,
her voice, and how dare you hurt her. How dare you hurt any of us.
Nopperabo, kami-sama, yokai, whatever it was, it had to go.
The figure was just a few metres away. It hadn’t noticed me yet.
It was small like Miu. Wore its hair the same way. It even smelled like
her… I closed my eyes for a moment and swallowed. Was she okay?
Did that creature kill her?
The image of Miu lying dead somewhere on the mountain was
enough to push me over the edge. I screamed, leapt forward, and
plunged the knife into the creature’s body. I pulled it out and thrust it
in again. I knew it! The creature could bleed! And if it could bleed,
then it could die!
“Die!” I screamed. The creature looked up at me with shocked
eyes. I smiled, my heart racing like a jackhammer. But the elation
was short lived. The shocked, confused eyes looking up at me…
they didn’t glitter. They didn’t shine at all. They were… dull.
Human.
“Ta…keru?”
I dropped the knife and grabbed the body beneath me with
bloody hands.
“…M-Miu?”
She smiled and coughed up blood. Oh no. No no no no no.
“No… Miu… no… I…”
She grabbed my wrist, her grip barely enough to circle it. I
pulled her close and tears fell from my cheeks onto hers.
“Miu… I didn’t…”
She smiled and coughed again. “I know, Takeru… I know…”
That was the last thing she ever said. The light extinguished
from her eyes and she went limp in my arms. I shook her. No
response. I shook her again and again. Nothing. The light was gone.
Miu was gone. The body I held in my arms was nothing more than a
sack of flesh, all life gone from it. Life that I had snuffed out.
How long did I cry? Did it matter? Did anything matter
anymore? I hadn’t even noticed how dark it was until another figure
stood above me, looking down at the two crumpled bodies in the
snow. One cold, and one about to be.
“I told you I left her alive…” the creature said. I looked up and
into a mirror. This time it looked just like me.
“Just do it already,” I muttered. I had no energy left to fight, and
I wouldn’t make it through the rest of the night anyway. Not in this
cold weather.
The creature wearing my face folded its arms and leaned
against a tree.
“It’s just over there, you know.”
“…What is?”
“The peak.”
 I let out a small, bitter laugh. What did I care of the peak now?
What did I care of anything?
“I don’t care.”
The creature shrugged. “So close, and yet so far. You were a
good sport, though. That’s the most fun I’ve had in a while. I like
you.”
“Great. Thanks.” The sarcasm dripped from my words.
“Well.” The creature pushed itself off the tree and clapped its
hands together. My hands. “This was fun, but I best be off!”
I looked up, confused. “I-I’m right here. Aren’t you going to…?”
“What?”
I frowned. “You know. Kill me.”
The face returned the frown just like a mirror. “Why would I do
that? Looks like you did a pretty good job of things yourself, and
there’s no fun in kicking a man when he’s down. You take care of
yourself, Takeru. I like you.”
The creature disappeared into the darkness, my own laughter
echoing in my ears. Was it coming from him or from me? Did it
matter?
A chill settled in. Over my skin. Over my heart. I hugged Miu’s
cold body close and closed my eyes. It wouldn’t be long until the
inevitable came for me too. And I would welcome it.
“I’m sorry, Miu.” I said. “I’ll see you soon.”
 Kinbako Temple

“Are you sure this temple exists?”

“Of course it does. Where do you think the rumours came
from?”
“Where do rumours ever come from?”
“A shred of truth, naturally.”
“So, you’re saying you’ve never actually been there.”
“Of course not.”
“So then, how do you know it’s real?”
“Because I just said so…”
“You have nothing other than the rumour?”
“Well, one of Hideo’s friends said—”
“Hideo? The guy that couldn’t tell the truth to save his own life?”
I looked at Kei and raised an eyebrow. Three years we’d been
dating, and he was always into abandoned buildings and scary
places, but this was the first time we’d ever visited Mount Yami
together. That sort of stuff wasn’t my thing, but he was very…
insistent… about it this time. Apparently, he heard about a new place
that we absolutely had to see.
“He’s not a bad guy, he just—”
“I never said he was a bad guy. I just said he couldn’t tell the
truth to save his life.”
“Maybe. But this news didn’t come from him anyway, so don’t
worry!”
I raised my eyebrow again. Kei grinned. I hated when he did
that. It made him look like a mischievous kid and I couldn’t resist it,
and he knew it.
“Alright. So what’s so good about this place then?”
We pushed further and further through the forest. I’d heard all
sorts of stories about Mount Yami over the years—most of them
fake, no doubt—but it was still nothing like I was expecting. It was
so… normal. The forest was dark and a little chilly, and Kei’s torch
was the only thing lighting our way. Yet I didn’t feel especially afraid
or worried that I might trip in a hole and break my ankle or
something. It felt… nice. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.
 “Well,” Kei said, stepping over a large root protruding from the
ground, “they say that some of the former shrine maidens of Mount
Yami used to reside at this temple. It was a joint temple/shrine thing,
I dunno. But anyway, these shrine maidens were special. They
weren’t the regular ones that oversaw the various rituals all over the
mountain.”
“Okay. What made them so special?”
“Well, these shrine maidens were the best of the best, or so
they say. Only the luckiest maidens were chosen, and once they
were, they never left the temple.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
“Why?” I had to admit, the story was intriguing. We pushed
through a few more trees. Kei seemed to know where he was going,
although how, I didn’t know.
“Well, that’s the thing we’re going to see. You remember the
name, right?”
“The name? Kin-something?”
“Yeah. Kinbako. Kinbako Temple. Think about it.”
I side-eyed him.
“Come on, it’s not that hard.”
“Bako as in box?” I threw the first thought in my head out. He
grinned and nodded.
“Uh huh.”
“Alright. Uh… kin as in forbidden, so, forbidden box then?”
“Bingo!”
“Well that’s stupid.”
His expression dropped in an instant.
“I think it’s a cool name.”
“A little on the nose, isn’t it?”
“I doubt they were worried about how cool or not it sounded
when they named the temple, you know. It has apparently been
around for a few hundred years.”
“Sure. So what did the shrine maidens do with these ‘forbidden
boxes’ then?”
 “I’m not entirely sure. I was hoping we could find out once we
get there. Maybe they’ve got some old scrolls or something lying
around, I dunno.”
It was time to raise my eyebrow again. “You’re telling me we’re
visiting an ancient temple hidden deep in the woods of a supposedly
haunted mountain where they kept forbidden boxes and you don’t
know exactly what those forbidden boxes were for?”
“Well, knowing everything beforehand would ruin the fun,
wouldn’t it?”
The eyebrow stayed raised.
“I looked, okay, but I wasn’t able to find a lot of information.
Finding the location of the temple itself was already more than
enough. You know how many people have been looking for Kinbako
Temple?”
“Clearly not a lot if you were able to find it so quickly on the
internet.”
“Who says it was quickly?”
A silence fell between us. Not uncomfortable, just the usual that
followed our little back-and-forths. It was nice. I never felt this way
with anyone else, and despite how much we fought, it was all in
good fun, and the comfortable silences that followed confirmed that. I
enjoyed it. A lot. It was entirely different to my childhood…
“I did hear one thing,” Kei said a few moments later. I couldn’t
see anything through the thick branches above us, but a bit of
moonlight filtered through here and there, making the area seem
almost… magical. No wonder people thought this mountain was
sacred.
“What’s that?”
“Apparently you could visit the temple to ease your pain. Back
in the day, it was one of the most popular temples on the mountain
for that very reason.”
“Ease your pain? What does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like, I guess. I couldn’t find a whole lot
more, but that was why followers went there. They wanted to ease
their pain, and so they visited Kinbako Temple.”
“Interesting…”
 “Look, we’re not too far away now, this is definitely it!” He
pointed to a small statue on the side of the path. Well, the remains of
a statue, really.
“Is that a Jizo statue?”
“Looks like it used to be.”
The tiny statue was missing half its head and, by the looks of it,
its hands and feet had been chopped off as well.
“Well, that’s not ominous.”
“Nobody has been out here for decades; of course things would
be falling apart. It’s nothing to worry about.”
“I’m not worried.”
“The look on your face says otherwise.”
“Shut up.”
“It shouldn’t be too much further ahead, come on!” Kei took off
running.
“Hey, wait!” I quickly followed. Getting lost out here in the dark
was not my idea of a fun night out.
A few minutes later, Kei suddenly stopped and I slammed into
his back. He turned to look at me and grinned. “I told you.” He shone
his light in front of us and the hairs on my arms stood on end.
“Oh wow…” The words sounded silly the moment they were out
of my mouth, but I couldn’t stop myself.
Kinbako Temple. Well, it was real, so I had to give him that.
But… Well, how to describe it?
“It’s… not much of a temple.”
Even Kei looked a little disappointed. “Yeah…”
There was one large building, surrounded by a few smaller
ones. Or at least, what remained of them. Most had rotted and fallen
apart, leaving only a basic frame or a base to remind people that
something had once stood there. The main building looked roughly
the same size as a tiny apartment living room.
“…Are you sure this is it?”
“It has to be. It’s right where they said it would be…”
“Maybe the directions were wrong…”
“No, this is definitely it. Huh. Well, that’s disappointing.”
 “Well, we’re here, you want to take a look around anyway?” I
suggested. It didn’t appeal much to me, but we had come all this
way. Might as well do a quick tour before leaving.
Kei nodded and started walking towards the largest and only
remaining building still standing. He pushed open the door and
stepped inside. Dust flew up with each step and the rotting wood
creaked beneath our feet.
“Careful,” he said, putting an arm out to keep me from walking
ahead. There was a large hole in the floor. “I don’t really want to
carry you all the way back to the car.” He smiled.
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to carry you either,” I replied. As he
spun the torch across the floor, something in the hole caught my eye
and my breath caught in my throat.
“Kei, wait!”
“What?”
“The hole. Shine the light in the hole again.”
He did as instructed and my blood ran cold. I knew it.
“There’s something down there…”
“What?” Kei got down on his hands and knees to look closer.
“Be careful!” I put a hand on his back, for what little good that
would do.
“Careful of what? It’s just a hole.”
For sure. It was just a hole. It wasn’t like I saw eyes looking
back at us, or a tiny animal run past. It was… a hole. But that was
exactly the problem.
It was a hole. Beneath the floorboards was a hole in the
ground. A hole large enough for a person to fit in, should they so
wish to try. Why was it there? Where did it go?
“You know, I heard there were a series of caverns under the
forest floor,” Kei said, turning back to look at me. “Maybe we just
found some.”
“Caverns? Like, caves and tunnels and such?”
He nodded and then stood up. “That has to be it! This isn’t the
temple; not the real temple, anyway. This is just the front. What
regular visitors see. No, the real temple has to be somewhere
through these tunnels.”
 I blinked a few times in the darkness. “…I’m sorry, are you
saying you want to climb into that… that hole?”
“You can wait here if you want.”
“Absolutely not.”
“So are you coming then?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Which is it?”
“No.”
“Well, I’m going.”
I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t claustrophobic—not that I
knew of, anyway—but the idea of squeezing into a hole to maybe
end up in a cavern that maybe led underground to another temple
was… a little too much to comprehend at once.”
“This temple was dedicated to pain, right?” Kei started again.
“People would come here because they wanted their pain taken
away. Well, you gotta give a little to get a little, you know?”
“No. No, I don’t know.”
“I’ll go first. You wait here and if you don’t hear my voice in a
few minutes, then go get help.”
“Are you serious?”
He grinned. He was very serious. I swallowed, my mouth
suddenly very dry. My skin crawled. Why was this place so… wet?
The floorboards were rotten and covered in moss and overgrown
plants. The whole place was permeated with water, and the hole in
the ground looked just as slick. Where on earth did it go? And why
was Kei so eager to jump into it?
He handed me the light and then quickly placed his lips against
mine. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We came all this way, I
have to check it out.”
“Kei, I—”
But he was gone. He turned and jumped into the hole, like a
diver jumping from a cliff.
“Kei!”
Silence unlike anything I’d ever heard filled the air. It was
almost deafening.
“Kei!”
 A few moments later, a voice returned.
“Get down here, you won’t believe this!”
My heart seemed to kick into gear again, as though it had been
waiting all this time to see if Kei was okay before it started working
again.
“Are you okay?” I screamed down the dark hole. I shone the
torch, but I couldn’t see anything other than slick rock.
“Fine! Hurry up!”
I looked around the dark remains of the temple. Kei was fine. It
was fine. I would be fine too. This felt wrong, but what could I do? I
didn’t want to remain alone up here while Kei explored wherever he
was.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, prayed to whoever might
be listening, and then stepped into the hole.
The walls were cold, and I slid through it easily, like a child on a
water slide. A few moments later, I landed hard on my backside and
was blasted with a wall of cold air.
“I told you!” Joy filled Kei’s voice as he grabbed my wrist and
helped me up. He held his lighter in front of his face, the tiny flame
flickering in the darkness and highlighting the cave around us.
“What in the…?” I could barely believe the sight before me.
“Right?” Kei beamed. “The real temple is down here!”
The tunnel, cave, whatever it was, extended into the distance,
eventually disappearing into the darkness. Various religious imagery
and objects decorated the slick cave walls as far as the eye could
see.
“So, uh, how are we supposed to get out of here?” I asked.
Kei shrugged. “I guess once we find the end.”
We started walking. The air was cold, and judging by the state
of the cavern, we were the first people to have walked its length in
quite some time.
“Did they really live down here?” I asked, the silence making
me uncomfortable.
“The shrine maidens? I guess so. That’s what people say.”
“So, they never saw the light?”
“I mean… I guess?”
 “That’s terrible.”
Images of my childhood flashed through my eyes. Drawn
curtains. Screaming parents. Smokey air. Bruises I had to hide from
school. I shook my head.
“It was part of their duty. They knew what they were signing up
for beforehand. Only the best were chosen, after all. They no doubt
saw it as an honour, not a punishment.”
A punishment. That was certainly what it seemed like. What
was an honour about being chosen to live in a dank cave, never to
see sunlight again so you could “take people’s pain away”? Sounded
like hell to me.
After walking through the tunnel for what felt like an eternity, we
finally emerged into an open area. Wooden torches lined the walls,
and Kei used his lighter to light them. A faint orange glow filled the
area and I gasped.
“Holy shit…” Kei couldn’t keep in his surprise either.
A large box sat in the middle of the room surrounded by sacred
rope. The box was intricate, with various designs carved into its
surface. At a glance, there was no discernible way to open it. It
looked like a puzzle box, and it was surrounded by numerous other
boxes, smaller in scale, but with the same intricate design.
Numerous mirrors placed around the boxes reflected them back on
each other in a seemingly endless loop of more boxes and more
mirrors.
“Look,” Kei said, pointing behind the altar of strange boxes.
“There are doors over there. That must be where the shrine maidens
lived. Let’s check it out!”
“I’m not so sure that’s a good id—” But Kei was already moving.
He manoeuvred past the altar of boxes and through the various
other tables and displays in the room and went straight for the door
ahead. He jiggled the handle, but it refused to budge. Locked.
“They built it right into the cave wall.” He sounded impressed.
He tried the doors to the left and right of the central one with the
same result. All locked. His eyes searched the ground, no doubt
looking for something to break the handles.
“Kei, don’t…”
 “What? Nobody has lived here for over 50 years. I doubt they’ll
mind if we take a look around at this point.”
“It feels wrong.”
“It’s not like you to be superstitious.”
“I’m not, but… I don’t like it.” Superstitious or not, this was still a
holy place where people had once lived. It felt like desecrating their
memories. They should be left to… rest.
“It’ll be fine, don’t worry!” Kei said. Unable to find anything
suitable on the ground, he returned to the altar, grabbed a small box,
and then came back to the door. “I’m terribly sorry, ladies. I’m sure
you’ll understand.”
Before I could protest, he brought the small, intricate box down
hard on the handle. There was a loud clang, but nothing happened.
He brought it down again twice, then three times, and finally there
was something akin to a pop.
“Oh god!” Kei dropped the box and jumped back. The door had
opened, sure, but so had the box. “What the hell?”
A dark liquid poured out onto the floor from the crack. A sharp,
metallic tang filled the air.
“Is that… blood?”
Kei looked up at me from the box, his eyes wide. He didn’t have
to say anything; it was pretty obvious. We both turned to look at the
boxes on the altar at the same time. Blood. They were full of blood.
A mixture of visitors’ blood. So that was it, huh? The “pain” people
donated to the temple was their own blood. The temple stored it in
these boxes, and in doing so, would receive said pain so the
devotees could return to the world above a new, freer person than
before.
Kei and I looked at each other again. The open door creaked
and a horrible musty smell wafted out of it. It hadn’t been opened for
decades, and whatever was in there slowly leaked out and swirled
around our nostrils.
Stepping around the box and the blood spilling forth from it on
the ground, Kei grabbed the door handle and shoved it open further.
Another gust of horrific smelling air poured forth. Mold, dust,
stagnant water, mud; it was hard to tell exactly what it was, but it
smelt earthy and raw and nauseating.
“Oh… wow. Okay. I was not… That’s…” Kei fumbled to find the
words he was after as he stood frozen by the door.
“What is it?” I tried to peer past him but couldn’t see a thing. He
finally stepped over the threshold, his eyes focused on something
inside the room. I stepped around the box and the blood on the floor
and followed him in.
“…Oh.” The word felt insufficient to describe what I saw before
me. My eyes painted a picture, but my brain refused to accept it as
reality. It was like looking at a painting, my brain trying to take it all in
and fill in the gaps while rejecting the reality of what it was. “Is
that…?”
“A shrine maiden… or at least, the remains of one…”
Sokushinbutsu. I’d heard the term before. Some Buddhist
monks practised it and basically self-mummified themselves over a
long period of time. Their bodies wouldn’t decay after death, and
several of these mummies had been found all over the country
looking exactly the same as the day they died hundreds of years
prior. But I’d never once heard about shrine maidens doing it. Or
women in general.
The mummy of the shrine maiden sat atop another altar
surrounded by boxes much like those outside. She was surrounded
by a circle of mirrors, and on each of the four walls, a larger mirror
reflected back on her as well. There was also one on the roof directly
above her. Everywhere you looked, the mummified shrine maiden
was there, all angles covered, nowhere to hide. Or perhaps,
nowhere to escape…
“Do you think they’re full of blood as well?” I asked. It was hard
to not screw my face up at the sight of it, but it was even worse when
I imagined what might be inside those boxes the shrine maiden
apparently gave her life for.
“I guess…” Kei stepped carefully around a few boxes on the
floor and touched one of the mirrors reflecting upon the shrine
maiden.
“Kei, don’t!”
 But it was too late. He picked it up and peered into it like a child
with a new toy.
“Ah!” he screamed and dropped the mirror, covering his face
with his hands before he could stop himself. He removed his hands
just as fast and looked at me with terror in his eyes. He grabbed my
shoulders and shook me painfully. “My face! Is there anything wrong
with my face?”
I shook my head, my eyes wide as well. “N-No… and you’re
hurting me…”
He let go and ran to one of the mirrors on the wall. He traced
the lines on his face, turning left and right, inspecting each and every
corner of it, occasionally pulling his hands back as if to check them
for something.
“W-What’s wrong?”
“You don’t see it?” He tried brushing something off his face that
wasn’t there.
“S-See what? Kei, you’re scaring me.”
He turned, and the look in his eyes froze me to the spot. He ran
another hand down his cheek and looked at his fingertips. “Blood…
the blood…”
“Kei, there’s no blood, what are you—?”
“It hurts… oh god, it hurts!” He ran his hands over his face
again, wiping away at something only he could see. “Make it stop!
Make it stop!”
“Kei! There’s nothing there!”
He brushed past me and grabbed another box from in front of
the shrine maiden, then slammed it against the ground. A piece of
the side shattered and dark liquid poured out of it again.
“It’s these boxes! The boxes! I’ll destroy them all!”
“Kei! Kei! Stop it! You’re scaring me!” His raised voice
frightened me, taking me back to unhappy times I’d worked long and
hard to forget. I tried to restrain him, but he threw me off and
grabbed another box, throwing it hard against the wall.
“Kei!”
He was like a madman possessed. It wasn’t that my words
weren’t getting through to him; he just wasn’t hearing me at all. He
grabbed another, and another, smashing them against the wall and
the floor. I screamed before I could stop myself, but then suddenly
he fell to his knees and his back arched. He coughed, a horrid wet
sound escaping his throat, and then dark liquid appeared on the floor
again… this time coming from him.
“We need to get out of here,” I said, my heart racing and my
head pounding. “Forget the boxes!” I placed a hand on his arm, but
when he looked up at me, I recoiled in horror.
“The boxes…” He coughed. “We’ve got to… destroy the
boxes…”
His face was covered in hundreds of tiny cuts, dark blood
pouring forth from them. His bloodshot eyes were dull above
massive dark bags that sagged beneath them. He coughed again,
more blood falling to the floor, and yet he still reached for another
box that sat beneath the altar nearby.
“Kei! Kei, stop!” I grabbed him and tried to pull him towards the
door, but he was oddly strong for someone consumed by horrific, wet
coughs. Something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.
The mummified shrine maiden. Did she… move? I shook my head. It
was just the reflection in the mirrors, nothing more. I gripped Kei
tighter and pulled.
“No!” he screamed. The sound echoed painfully in the tiny
cavernous room. He grabbed another box and hurled it, this one
hitting the mirror on the wall. It shattered and clanged to the floor
with the box. I took a step back, afraid of what might happen next.
The shrine maiden continued to sit unmoving on her altar, but… her
face… I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. No way… She was
smiling. Yet when I looked again, the mummified face looked exactly
as it always had. Dead. Frozen. Unmoving.
More and more cuts appeared on Kei’s arms and legs. They
seemed to open up out of nowhere, and he fell to the floor, the boxes
finally forgotten, as he curled into the foetal position and groaned in
pain.
“Kei! Kei!”
I leaned down and grabbed him, but he pushed me off. And
then I realised something. The mummified shrine maiden… she was
covered in thousands of tiny cuts too, just like Kei. At a glance they
were barely visible, but looking closer, they were clear as day. The
telltale signs of healed cuts all over her arms, her chest, her neck
and face. Her entire body appeared to have been slashed over and
over and over again. Once the cuts had healed, they were no doubt
opened again and again, bleeding her bit by bit.
The blood in the boxes… it didn’t just come from the followers.
Of course it didn’t. That alone wouldn’t do much. They came to get
rid of their pain, but the temple still had to do something with that
pain they took. And that was the shrine maidens’ job, wasn’t it? She
took on the burden of that pain herself. She added her own to
placate it. But it was never enough. Never could be enough. People
would never stop bringing their pain, and her job would never end.
The best she could do was endure it until her end came as well.
Then she would be locked in with her burdens, left to watch over
them for eternity.
“Kei! We have to get out of here!” I grabbed him under his
armpits and tried to drag him towards the door. He groaned, but the
sound was getting weaker. His entire body was covered in cuts,
more and more opening by the second, and a sharp tang filled the
air. He was bleeding to death before my eyes.
No. Not again…
“Kei! Come on!”
There was nothing he could do. Somewhere a bell tinkled and
another cold gust of air washed over me. Suddenly, it was silent. Too
silent. Kei wasn’t even groaning anymore.
“Kei? Kei!” I shook him, but there was no response. Blood
continued to pool beneath him, but he was no longer moving. I
pressed a finger to his bloody neck. No pulse. My own heart raced.
“Kei!”
The sound of my own screams echoed in the small room.
Memories I had long tried to forget flooded back. The dark silhouette
of my father standing by the door. My mother’s lifeless body on the
ground. The sharp, tangy smell in the air…
I continued dragging Kei towards the door, but suddenly slipped
in the blood and landed hard on my shoulder. I lay there for a
moment, tears filling my eyes.
It wasn’t real. None of this was real. It was all a bad dream. We
came here on a whim. We were just having a bit of fun, it couldn’t
end like this. Not again. Why did those close to me keep leaving me
behind? It didn’t make any sense. All he did was touch the boxes…
…Except he didn’t. He didn’t just touch them. He broke them.
Several, in fact. Let the blood inside them go free. The kinbako. The
forbidden boxes. Then he broke the mirrors keeping them sealed.
The mummified shrine maiden seemed to look right into my
soul from her perch on the altar, now stained with the blood of many,
including her own. I pushed myself to my feet, unable to tear my
eyes off her. Mess around and find out. That was what people said,
right? The saying went something like that.
I grabbed the collar of Kei’s shirt and yanked him towards the
door. Inside I felt oddly calm. No, perhaps calm wasn’t the best word
for it. My emotions were shutting down, one after the other, in an
attempt to deal with what was happening. I’d been in this position
before, after all. The police were very kind to the little girl they found
dragging her mother’s bloody, broken body down the stairs of their
shoddy apartment building. The incident had traumatised her, they
said. It would have traumatised anyone. She survived by turning her
emotions off, the court-appointed therapist said. Any child would do
the same, seeing their father murder their mother before their very
eyes…
Once again it was too much to take in at once, and so it was all
systems failure. I dragged Kei’s limp, lifeless body into the main
room and spotted another tunnel twisted off to the left. That was no
doubt the way out. Followers came here, donated their blood to the
maiden, said a little prayer and then went on their way, leaving her to
deal with it while they were freed of their burden.
One of the boxes caught my eye as I pulled Kei past it. It
stained the floor black. Another bell rang somewhere in the distance.
There were no shrine maidens left to take my pain now. I would have
to live with it the rest of my life…
…Or would I? The box called to me. The urge to pick it up, to
end all my pain, it was strong. Too strong.
 The memories never truly went away. That one single event
shaped the rest of my entire life. I jumped at any loud noise. I shrank
from touch, even when it came from someone I loved. At least, loved
as much as I thought I could. What was love, really? It wasn’t killing
them in the bathroom because there wasn’t enough beer in the
fridge, that was for sure.
I let go of Kei and stared at the box. It seemed to speak to me,
whispering sweet nothings of all the pain it could take away. Of the
calm, quiet darkness it could give me in return. Before I knew what
was happening, I bent down, closed my eyes, and reached out into
the darkness.
Yes. Let it all end. Let it take my pain. Blood. Darkness.
Screams. Silence.
Sweet nothingness.
A single bell rang. And then pain like nothing else I’d ever felt
before flooded my body. A face somewhere in the darkness smiled,
and the fire subsided. It didn’t disappear; not entirely. But it subsided.
It was excruciating, yet bearable. It wasn’t Kei. Not my father, nor
even my mother. It wasn’t even a face I knew. And yet I did. It was
the shrine maiden. I followed her into the darkness.
No more pain. I was home.
 Yami Station

“We really should have gone with Ayaka and the others to the river,”
Ami muttered as she brushed a leaf off her shoulder. “It’s creepy out
here.”
“That’s the point,” I replied. “And besides, I thought you didn’t
like Taichi and his friends. ‘They’re annoying children’ were your
exact words, were they not?”
“Well yeah, but… I mean, it beats this.”
Ami, my best friend since elementary school, had a knack for
making things bigger than they really were. Our elementary school
graduation book had a section where people listed what jobs they
thought their classmates would have in the future. Almost every
single person said they thought Ami would become an actress. She
had a habit of overacting even from a young age that, as we grew
older, made people believe her less and less. Her complaints often
fell on deaf ears because people were tired of her exaggerations,
which meant it was up to me to bear them.
“And is it me, or did it get colder all of a sudden? I knew I
should have brought a jacket…”
“You’re wearing one,” I pointed out.
“Well, yeah, but this is my regular jacket. I mean my winter
one.”
“It’s summer.”
“Well, clearly the weather didn’t get that memo, did it?”
She was right in this instance. The higher we walked, the
further the temperature dropped. I honestly just didn’t want to hang
out with Taichi and his friends, so when Ayaka invited us to their little
hangout on behalf of her friend, well… A little cold weather was far
preferable to that.
Hanging out with Taichi and his friends on Mount Yami wasn’t
the most appealing way to spend the weekend, but that didn’t mean
that I didn’t want to visit the mountain itself. There was one particular
legend I heard in junior high school that always fascinated me. Now
that we were in the summer of our final year of high school, this
would be my final chance to check things out for myself.
 The mysterious Yami Station.
“I wanna go home…” Ami muttered, pulling me back from my
thoughts.
“We’re not even halfway there yet.”
“Why did I even agree to this?”
“Because I’m the only person who will put up with you and you
know it.”
She frowned at me. “Yeah, well I bet their attitudes will change
when I’m famous and they all wanna pretend to be my friends
again.”
“So you are gonna go through with it then? I mean, moving to
the city to pursue acting.”
“Well, what else am I good at?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but then thought better of
it. “It’s not gonna be easy, you know.” I settled for something nicer.
“I’ll remember that when I’m rolling in my millions.” She
shivered and rubbed her arms. “Seriously, why did I agree to this?”
Our goal wasn’t that far away. Not in the grand scheme of
things. It wasn’t like we were climbing to the peak of the mountain or
anything. Hell, we weren’t even going halfway up, and we’d already
driven most of the way. Ami’s car, of course, bought for her by daddy
dearest. But the only way to get there was now out of the way and
required at least a little hiking. Yami Station, much like the three
other stations on the mountain, was destroyed in the landslide over
50 years earlier. That wasn’t what interested me though. It was the
rumours surrounding the station after that that drew my interest.
“Don’t you wanna see if the rumours really are true?”
Ami pushed on through the rough path, but she cast a slight
backwards glance at me, her eyebrow raised. “Do you really believe
that?”
“Well, only one way to find out…” Did I believe the rumours? I
honestly didn’t know. I didn’t think I was a superstitious person, but
the more I hung around Ami, the more I realised that yeah, maybe I
was. I never organised big events on days that ended in four. I
unconsciously hid my thumbs whenever a hearse drove by. I never
whistled at night. They were stories I enjoyed as a child, fun things
that made the world a little more interesting, a little more frightening,
and yet as I grew up… I found it hard to drop the habits. Did I really
believe, or was I just hoping that there was more to life than what we
saw before us?
That, deep down, was what I was hoping to find out with Yami
Station. In my late night sessions delving into everything the
anonymous online occult boards could offer me, I uncovered one
story I could never let go of. It was local, and that made it all the
more enticing. The story of Yami Station, the long abandoned final
stop on Mount Yami… although, if the rumours were true, then it
wasn’t actually the final stop. There was one more after it, a phantom
station with no discernible name (that people agreed on, anyway).
One that had been planned in the days leading up to the landslide
but never came to fruition. They’d even started extending the tracks,
but they didn’t get far before the mountain came down on them and
killed over 30 workers; not to mention swathes of passengers who
weren’t able to escape in time. And the ghosts of those killed in the
landslide were still said to lurk the area, but that wasn’t the main
attraction. No, it was the phantom station itself, and how you got
there.
According to what I read (and I read a lot…), certain conditions
had to be met in order to find the phantom station. The first and by
far the most important was rain. If it wasn’t raining, then you wouldn’t
be able to find it. But the problem with this was that numerous
people had apparently visited Yami Station on rainy days and found
nothing. It seemed it wasn’t just any rain. It was rain under certain
conditions. Localised, if you will, and heavy, just like the day of the
landslide. You couldn’t just check the weather app and show up on a
rainy day and hope to find it. It didn’t work that way, otherwise
everyone would do it.
The second condition, and the one that nobody had really
figured out yet, was that you apparently had to be “chosen.” Some
people found the station easily. Others had been trying for years,
rain or not, and found nothing. Either the station wanted you to find
it, or it didn’t.
 Ami wiped something from her forehead and turned to me with
another frown. “Rain? Seriously?”
My heart skipped a beat and I smiled before I could stop
myself. Oh, that was good. Too good.
“It’s happening,” I said.
“What’s happening?”
“If you find Yami Station and it’s raining, then there’s a good
chance you’ll be able to find the phantom station as well!”
“Do you really believe that crap you read on the internet?”
Did I? Well, I was out here in the rain looking for a long
abandoned station in the hopes it might lead me to an urban legend.
So… yeah. I guess I did, to a certain extent. Or maybe I was just
hoping against hope that it would be true, regardless of whether I
actually believed it deep down or not. I wanted so badly for it to be
true because if it wasn’t, then… reality was kind of boring, and I
wanted something to shake that up.
“Well, why are you here if you don’t?” I threw the question back
at her. She hunched under a branch and kept walking.
“I don’t know. Why am I here? That’s a very good question… I
guess I didn’t want to see you head off into the wilderness yourself
just to die.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet.”
“Shut up.”
I smiled. The station was supposed to be just up ahead, and as
the rain started to pelt down harder, there it was.
“Wow…” It was the only sound I could muster.
“It looks like… an abandoned station,” Ami said. “Congrats. I’m
glad we came all this way for this.”
I brushed past her and towards the remains. That was really the
only way it could be described. The shell of the building remained,
although most of it had filled in with dirt that had overgrown with
weeds and trees over the decades since. The stairs leading up to it
and the platform were still serviceable, although wild vines and grass
also pressed through the cracks.
“Wow, the train is still here…” I don’t know what I was
expecting, but actually seeing the remaining cable car was, for some
reason, a shock.
“Probably too hard to remove it after the landslide,” Ami said,
stepping up beside me. Rain soaked her hair and it stuck to her face.
She looked awfully cute, and once again I was glad that she agreed
to join me here. Would I have come by myself if she said no?
Honestly, yes, but I was glad that she agreed so that I didn’t have to.
“Come on, let’s check it out,” I said, grabbing her hand and
pulling her the rest of the way up the stairs.
“Wait, you really wanna get in that thing?”
“How else are we gonna find the phantom station?” I turned and
gave her a smile, but I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. The car
certainly didn’t look like it could move, but we came all this way, so
we had to at least take a look.
The door opened after a little jiggling with the handle and I took
the first exhilarating step inside. It was, all things considered, in
rather good condition. The front windscreen was broken, as were
several of the passenger windows. It was smaller than I was
expecting, only big enough to fit maybe 30 people max, and the
seats were dirty, torn, and covered in something that didn’t look like it
should be sat on.
“You realise it won’t have any power after all these years,
right?” Ami said. She ran a finger along one of the dirty chairs and
screwed her face up at what came off. She wiped it on her skirt and
turned to me. “Well, we’re here. Now what?”
Now what indeed. There was a conductor’s panel at either end
of the car. I pressed the one closest to us, the one that presumably
would send it back down the mountain. Nothing happened. No lights.
No sign of life at all. Well, that was to be expected. Nothing strange
there.
The rain outside picked up. It fell so loudly that it sounded ear-
piercing inside the broken car with shattered windows. A wind picked
up and sent the rain hurtling in. Ami let out a small scream, and I
spun towards her.
“Gross!” She pulled something off her face. Just a wet leaf. She
flung it to the ground in disgust and rubbed her arms closer together
again.
 “You okay?”
She nodded. “Guess we’re waiting here till the rain ends…”
A jolt of electricity ran throughout my entire body. This was it.
This was absolutely it. I strode towards the other end of the car,
ignoring the rain coming through the windows, and zeroed in on my
target. Before I even knew what I was doing, I slammed my palm
down on the large button that basically screamed “GO” at me.
…Nothing happened.
“I told you, there’s no…” Ami’s voice trailed off. Something
clunked loudly beneath our feet. Large, rusted pieces of steel
shuddered and grated, moving into position, and then, as if waking
from a long slumber, the entire car shuddered, shook, and started
moving. But not down the mountain… up.
“What the hell…?” Ami clung to the dirty chair in front of her like
her life depended on it. The car shuddered and groaned, moving up
the mountain with great effort. It heaved, croaked, and metal loudly
scraped against metal. This was it! This was really it! I couldn’t hide
the smile on my face as I turned to Ami, but her eyes remained wide
and her jaw clenched. I ran back down the tiny corridor between the
chairs, careful not to slip in the rain, and placed my hand on hers.
“Ami! It’s real! It’s actually real!”
She said nothing, but she conveyed her terror through her eyes
well enough. “M-Momoka…” She could barely get the word out. I
squeezed her hand and looked around, unable to contain my joy.
The car kept moving, slowly, further and further up the mountain.
Before long we were engulfed in darkness, and Ami screamed.
“It’s just a tunnel!” I tried to say, but she threw herself on me
and clung as though her life depended on it. I held her tight, but I
was too focused on what was happening around us. My mind raced
a thousand miles a minute. What would we see on the other side?
The same mountain? A different mountain? An alternate universe?
Monsters? Ghosts? Nothing at all? No, there had to be something.
The car didn’t start for no good reason. That wasn’t how it worked.
We emerged from the darkness and Ami pulled her face away
from my shoulder, although her grip remained firm. More rain, more
trees. It looked familiar, and yet… also different. As though the world
had been mirrored, flipped upside down, then tossed roughly back
into place. At a glance, it didn’t look like anything was wrong, but the
closer you looked, the more unnatural it appeared. Branches bent
the wrong way. Leaves too big or too small for the trunk they were
attached to. Puddles that rippled unnaturally.
“Momoka…”
This time I said nothing. My grip on her tightened, and at that,
Ami fell silent as well. We waited in uncomfortable silence as the car
rumbled, groaned, and then, finally, pulled to a stop.
We were here.
Neither of us said a word. Part of me still didn’t believe it was
real, and that by moving I’d break the illusion and everything would
fall apart. I’d find myself back on the dilapidated platform, staring into
space, Ami clicking her fingers in front of my face, trying to bring me
back. Yet I could feel her warmth pressed up against me, the warmth
of her breath on my neck as she clung to me like her life depended
on it. There was a particular smell in the air that I couldn’t place, a
hint of metal and rotten meat, and then something in the distance
that slowly pierced the silence.
…Bells?
This was very real, and as Ami’s grip on my wrist tightened, I
knew that moving would not wake us from this dream. I turned my
head and the bells in the distance got louder. Closer. They were
approaching us, and every fibre of my being screamed that we
needed to get away from there before the bells reached us. I didn’t
know what the bells heralded, but I did know that we shouldn’t hang
around to find out.
“Ami.” The word came out hoarse, more like a frog’s croak than
a human voice. “We have to go.”
She didn’t move. Didn’t say a thing. Her hot breath against my
neck contrasted sharply with the bitingly cold air of the mysterious
station we found ourselves in.
“Ami,” I said again, more sharply this time. That seemed to
snap her back to reality. “We need to go. Now.”
She didn’t say a thing, just nodded and squeezed my wrist so
tight I thought she meant to tear it off. I shuffled the two of us to the
car door and opened it. We stepped out onto the platform and I
shivered. Whether it was the cold or something else, I didn’t know.
Perhaps both.
“W-Why’s it so cold…” Ami muttered. I shook my head. Again
bells sounded in the distance, this time to our right. Before, they had
come from the left. More than one. That wasn’t good.
“Do you hear that?” I asked, my eyes scanning the station. A
dirty sign hung above the lone ticket gate, but the letters were so
badly faded and scratched off that I couldn’t read a thing. Even the
character for “station” had been reduced to a few strokes I barely
recognised.
“W-What is it?” Ami asked, shuffling with me as we edged
towards the ticket gate.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think we should be here when it
arrives.”
Ami nodded. There was little else at the station. A single
platform, the one we stood on, and a single ticket gate that led
outside. An old vending machine crackled to the right of the gate, a
light flashing on and off as it did so. Something told me we shouldn’t
try anything from it.
“Come on…” I dislodged Ami’s death grip as gently as I could,
grabbed her hand, and made my way for the gate. I looked up at the
sign as we passed beneath it and realised that at least some of the
stains were dark red. Almost like blood…
“Are we… are we still on Mount Yami?” Ami asked as we exited
the tiny station. I looked around at the odd trees and fought the
sickness rising within me at the constant bad smell.
“Where else could we be?” I replied. It looked like Mount Yami,
but it didn’t. That tunnel could have taken us anywhere. Nothing
made sense, so did it matter where we were?
The bells rang again, one followed by another. Left, then right.
But as I listened, I realised there were even more still. They were
surrounding us, converging on the station. They were getting closer,
much closer.
“Ami, we really need to get out of here before those bells
arrive.”
 She nodded, the look in her eyes conveying both her fear and
her understanding of the strange situation. We slipped into the
darkness of the trees, leaving the only light behind us. The light of
the station. I looked up and realised there wasn’t even any
moonlight. This… wasn’t good. Where could we even go like this?
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked it. The
characters warped and distorted and the colours changed rapidly,
like an old TV set trying to find a channel. “What the hell…?”
Ami looked down, frowned, grabbed her own phone and then
her eyes opened wide in fear again. She showed it to me. “M-Mine
too…”
“Alright, look. Let’s stop and think a moment.” This was what I
wanted, wasn’t it? To find the phantom station? Well, here it was. So
why was I filled with such terror and dread as I’d never felt before?
Not like this. This wasn’t what I really wanted. The idea of the
phantom station was alluring, seductive even, but deep down, I didn’t
ever believe that it could actually be real.
And I certainly never imagined this.
“We can’t run around blindly in the dark,” I said. “That’s a good
way to get lost and die.” Ami nodded. I brought her here. This was
my fault, and it was my responsibility to get her back alive. I looked
at my phone again. These were apparently useless, so our options
were extremely limited, and none of them sounded appealing in my
head.
“We have two choices. One, we can run and look for help.” I
looked around at the darkness. Ami huddled closer and tightened
her grip on my wrist again. I was her lifeline, and she refused to let
go. This was not the best option and would likely lead to our deaths
in one way or another. “Or two, we can wait here, see what shows
up, and then try to get back on the cable car again.”
I briefly considered rushing back to the car right that very
moment and trying to go back, but something told me we wouldn’t
have a whole lot of time, and I didn’t wish to get caught blind in the
open either when the carriers of those bells arrived.
Ami shook her head. “I don’t want to run around in… this.” She
gestured to the dark forest.
 “No, me neither. So then… we wait.”
The bells rang louder all around us. The sharp smell in the air
got worse. It was so strong it made my stomach churn and
threatened to return what I’d eaten that day.
“Come on…” I grabbed Ami’s hand, the one still gripped tightly
around my wrist, and pulled her a little further into the forest.
Somewhere where we could see the outside but hopefully not get
spotted ourselves. I pressed up against a tree and Ami pressed
herself up behind me. Normally this situation would have summoned
all sorts of awkward feelings within me, but in the moment all I felt
was fear. A little confusion. And mostly dread.
We waited. Ami’s breath warmed the back of my neck and I
was sure that I was shaking, but what else could I do? The bells rang
at regular intervals, getting louder and louder, and soon they
sounded like they were right next to us. I had to check a few times to
make sure that they weren’t.
Then someone grabbed my mouth from behind. It wasn’t Ami. I
tried to scream, but the hand pressed down harder and a voice
whispered in my ear. “Be quiet.” The tone was low, deep, and
authoritative, yet it did not scare me. On the contrary, my confused
feelings flipped from anxiety to… relief?
The tension drained from my body just for a moment and,
perhaps sensing that, the hand let go. I turned around and found
myself standing before a shrine maiden; at least, she looked like
one. She must have been in her 30s, maybe early 40s, but she wore
the same clothes the Mount Yami shrine maidens of old wore. I
remembered them from the pictures I’d seen because they were
rather unique. Not the usual shrine maiden fare, but a mix of black
and red in a cut I’d never seen before. For some reason, her mere
presence calmed me. The sensation was confusing.
“Who are—?” But before I could finish the question, she
pressed a finger to my lips again and pulled me back. The bells, it
seemed, had arrived. I peered around the shrine maiden to see just
who was carrying them.
…Even more shrine maidens. They walked in pairs, each
holding a bell. Two approached from our right. A few moments later,
two from the left. Another set of bells sounded in the distance ahead
of us. I looked down. The shrine maiden next to us was also holding
a bell. How didn’t we hear her coming?
I opened my mouth to ask another question, but she shook her
head so I closed it again. She pointed with her free hand to
something by the station. I squinted, trying to make it out in the
darkness. The shrine maidens had all stopped. Something flitted by
the platform. The cable car shook and a loud roar tore through the
air. I covered my ears with my hands, but it did little to stop the ear-
piercing screech.
The shrine maidens started shaking the bells again, this time
one of the maidens taking two while the other, now free, chanted and
removed something from her obi. A mirror.
The bells grew louder and louder, a sound that such a small
number of bells shouldn’t have been able to make. Every now and
then a light flashed across my face, and I realised it was the mirror
on the other side of the station reflecting the light on me. I turned
away, the light blinding me, and the roars of the creature joined the
cacophony of bells. Then, almost as quickly as it had begun, it
stopped. The creature apparently felled. The station fell silent.
Well, almost. The shrine maiden holding the mirror in front of us
suddenly let out an ear-piercing cry that matched the creatures.
“Oh no…” the maiden next to us muttered. It was the first thing
she’d said since it all began, and I jumped, for a moment forgetting
she was even there. She put an arm out and pushed Ami and I
behind her. The other shrine maidens rushed over, frantically
shaking their bells and aiming their mirrors. It would have been
comical if it wasn’t so horrifying.
The shrine maiden dropped to the ground, holding her head in
pain. The air around her seemed to shimmer and wave, like the heat
that comes off a pan when cooking. She wasn’t burning; at least, I
didn’t think she was. But her screams soon turned dark. Deep.
Inhuman.
When the shrine maiden stood again, the others slowly backed
away. The air continued to shimmer around her, and then, slowly,
she turned to look directly at us. My mouth fell agape in horror. It
wasn’t the fact that she knew we were there. It was… her face.
It was gone. Or, more precisely, it was there, but we couldn’t
see it. It was like a blind spot. I’d experienced such a thing once or
twice in my life, usually followed by a massive headache. A large
section of my vision just gone. There’s simply nothing there. It’s not
black, it’s not anything. It’s just gone. That was what her face was
like. I was looking right at it, but nothing was there. If it was still
there, then something was keeping me from seeing it.
The shrine maiden in front of us stiffened. Whatever it was, it
wasn’t good. She hurriedly pulled the mirror out of her own obi and
aimed it at the faceless maiden.
“W-What’s going on?” I asked, unable to keep the terror from
encroaching in my voice.
“She’s corrupted,” the maiden answered, not taking her eyes off
the faceless woman.
“Corrupted?” Finally Ami spoke. She had been silent the entire
time.
“If we don’t cleanse her then we’re all done for.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I grabbed Ami and took a
step back. The shrine maidens seemed to know what they were
doing, and I didn’t want to get in the way of that. The bells rang
louder and louder and several maidens chanted while pointing their
mirrors, including the one next to us. The faceless maiden
screamed, eyeing them down one after the other, each averting her
eyes as she did. She moved like an animal trapped in a cage, and
then finally the shrine maiden who had been with us approached her,
reached out through the haze, and touched her.
An unearthly shriek ripped through the air and both maidens fell
to the ground. Within moments, the faceless maiden disappeared
and the other maiden’s back heaved as she attempted to regain her
breath.
“What… on earth just happened?” I managed to spit out. Ami
said nothing beside me.
The other shrine maidens helped the one on the ground up,
and then she turned back to us. It seemed to be a cue and we
stepped out of the trees. Nobody looked surprised to see us. They
knew we were there all along.
“Um… hi…” I wasn’t quite sure what to say in a situation like
this. Nobody said a thing. “Uh… so… um…”
“What the hell just happened?” Ami cut in and saved me from
sounding like even more of a blundering fool.
“She was corrupted,” the same shrine maiden answered, her
breathing heavy. Whatever she had done, it had taken a toll on her.
“Yes, you said that, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
The shrine maiden replaced her mirror and, after a few more
breaths, stood up tall and looked Ami in the eye. She studied her
face a moment before turning to look at the others. They nodded. A
conversation had taken place that we weren’t privy to. My heart
started pounding in my chest and I had no idea why.
“So, it’s you.”
Ami recoiled a moment as if something had exploded in front of
her. She looked at me and then the shrine maidens, confusion all
over her face. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You were the chosen one.”
At that Ami laughed. It was short and brutal. “Chosen one?
What, I’m some sort of hero now? Are you high?”
Yet none of the shrine maidens laughed. “This station does not
exist. Not in a way that you would understand, anyway. Only certain
people are able to find it.”
It was just like the legend said! I knew it!
“Uh huh. And of course we were the lucky two.”
“No, not you two. Just you.”
I didn’t know why, but those words stung me deep. We hadn’t
been lucky, nor was I one of the special few that managed to be
“chosen” to find the phantom station. It had nothing to do with me at
all. It was… Ami?
“Me? Look, you ladies need to start making some sense or
we’re out of here.”
“You are the descendant of a Mount Yami shrine maiden,” the
maiden before us proclaimed. “Only the descendants of those who
lost their lives here are able to make it through.”
 “Descendant? Make it through? Look, start talking in words that
make sense.” Ami was getting more impatient by the minute. I’d
never seen her like that before. And yet, inside, all I felt was…
disappointment. It wasn’t me. It never was. I was merely along for
the ride.
“When the landslide destroyed much of the mountain, it… took
us with it.” Several shrine maidens exchanged glances. They died.
That was what she meant. So then, what were they? Ghosts?
Remnants? Something else entirely? “We were performing a ritual at
the time to bless the land in preparation for the new station’s
construction. This station would lead people directly to Kuromizu
Shrine.”
Kuromizu Shrine. Of course. The biggest and perhaps the most
important shrine on the whole mountain. So that was where the new
station was supposed to go.
“…And then the landslide hit?” I asked. The shrine maiden
nodded.
“When we… woke up… we found ourselves here.” The words
“woke up” sounded uncertain, as though she didn’t know a better
way to phrase it. One moment we were performing a ritual, the next,
we were here. Something like that.
“Alright, so then, what is all this?” Ami asked. The scared girl
from earlier was gone, replaced with a rare aggressive type I’d only
seen once before in my life, when another student accused her of
cheating on a test she studied real hard for. She did not take lightly
to that accusation and, well, things got heated. Real heated. It led to
a rather interesting nickname for the rest of our junior high days:
Bakuhatsu Ami. Even though it never happened again, the name
stuck until we all changed schools.
I prayed she wouldn’t explode here, too.
“Mount Yami has another side. A side most people never see,”
the shrine maiden explained as though it was plain as day.
“Another side? You mean like, an alternate dimension or
something?”
The shrine maiden shook her head. “Think of it as… unseen.”
 “Unseen? I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’re still not making any
sense.”
I put a hand on Ami’s arm. She jumped for a moment and then
calmed down. She was so strung out that she really was about to
explode any moment now.
“There is a reason so many of us make Mount Yami our home.
This mountain is more important than you realise, and there is a
good reason it is one of the most sacred mountains in the entire
country.”
“Alright, alright. Whatever. So we’re in the ‘unseen’ part of the
mountain. Sure. But what the hell was that thing on the cable car
before, and where did that other shrine maiden with the weird face
go?” Both questions I wanted answers to as well.
“The way back to the mountain only opens at certain times.”
The maiden turned to look at the station. “Whenever that cable car
that shouldn’t be arrives.”
“Wait, so when we came through…”
“…The creatures that exist here use that opportunity to try to
break free, yes,” the shrine maiden answered for me.
“Creatures? What creatures?”
“Some things are best left unknown.” She smiled. It was not a
gentle smile. For a moment she looked much older, much more tired,
and then it passed. “But enough of that. Let’s walk.”
“Walk? Where?” I asked.
“The shrine is nearby. We can talk about what happens next
there.”
Something in the pit of my stomach dropped. What happens
next? What was that supposed to mean?
“So uh, you’ve been here a long time, then?” Ami asked as we
walked. The shrine maiden merely looked at her for a moment and
then smiled.
“From your point of view, perhaps.”
“From my… you know what, whatever. So, how far is this
shrine?”
“You’ve never been there?”
 Ami looked at the shrine maiden for a moment like she wasn’t
sure how to answer that question. “Uh… no… Should I have?”
“They did not restore it then?”
“Ma’am, I don’t even know what shrine you’re talking about.”
“Kuromizu Shrine,” she said. “Is that not why you came here?”
Ami shook her head and pointed at me with her thumb. “She
heard rumours of a phantom station and wanted to check it out. And,
well, here we are.”
The shrine maiden turned to eye me as I walked behind them.
A look passed over her face that I couldn’t quite place and she
turned back.
“We’re almost there,” she said after a moment’s silence, and as
if on cue, a massive building came into view in the distance. It
seemed to grow out of the ground and expand higher and wider as
we walked up the hill, until finally we stood before its magnificent
presence.
“…Wow.” It was all I could say. I’d seen pictures of Kuromizu
Shrine on the internet, but they were old and, honestly, not very
good. They did nothing to speak of its majesty. It was massive. A
huge shrine gate rose before us, looking like the day it had been
made, and behind it stood the main shrine building surrounded by
countless more spreading in all directions. So this was the main hub
of the mountain back in the day, huh? It made sense. This was
where the majority of the public came when they visited the
mountain, and it saw the most action and housed the most maidens
and priests.
“Are there no priests here?” I asked suddenly, drawing the
shrine maiden’s gaze back to me. Her cheek twitched and she
forced a smile again.
“There were.”
“…Were?”
“Few survived the landslide, and those with us, well… not all
those creatures were here when we got here.”
I let those words sink in for a moment. Oh.
Suddenly the shrine maiden turned towards the trees, her eyes
widening. Instinctively she grabbed for the mirror in her obi and the
other shrine maidens leapt into action. They ushered Ami and I
through the shrine gate and into the grounds.
“What? What is it?” Ami asked, her voice trembling.
“Stay behind us,” another shrine maiden who hadn’t spoken yet
said. There was a nasty scar starting from her eyebrow running
down her cheek. Her left eye beneath it was almost entirely white.
Ami gripped my arm and I placed a hand over hers.
Several shrine maidens armed their mirrors at the invisible
threat, and three of them started chanting. The trees ahead of us
trembled. Whatever it was, it was large. The shaking grew more
violent, and Ami and I took a step back before we could stop
ourselves. The shrine had to be safe, right? That was what shrines
were, after all. Monsters couldn’t get in here… could they?
The first thing I saw emerge from the forest was a large black
hat, yet not the usual type I saw on Shinto priests. This one was
slightly different, just like the shrine maidens wore hakama that were
slightly different to usual. But even so, the body beneath it was most
decidedly not a priest. It was… not something I could place at all. It
ran forward on all four limbs, yet it moved not like any animal I’d ever
seen before. Ami screamed and ran before I could stop her. I chased
after her as the shrine maidens behind us chanted louder. There was
screaming. The sound of something tearing. Growling. Grunting.
“Ami!”
She ran into the main shrine building, and hot on her tail, I
slammed the door behind us.
“We need to get the hell out of here.” Ami’s face was panicked.
“You hear me? Right now.”
“Yeah, but… how?”
“Screw all this.” The panic gripping her made her pace on the
spot, her thoughts scattered. “Seriously. Why the hell did we come
here in the first place? My ancestor was a shrine maiden? What
bullshit. They’re crazy. We’re getting outta here. Come on.”
The sounds outside, for better or worse, had stopped. Ami went
to open the door again but I grabbed her wrist. She stopped and
looked at me.
“Listen…”
 She pressed her ear to the door. “I don’t hear anything…”
“Exactly…”
Recognition dawned on her face. No screams. No chanting. No
movement. Nothing.
Suddenly there was a bang at the door. Ami screamed and I
jumped at the same time. The door flew open and a shrine maiden
fell inside. It was the maiden with the scar, and the head maiden
followed closely behind. The one with the scar was bleeding badly.
“Oh my god…”
“She will be fine,” the head maiden said. “It’s just a scratch.”
It didn’t look like just a scratch. I looked at the door, waiting for
the other shrine maidens, but nobody else arrived.
“Um… Where are the others?” I wasn’t sure if I wanted the
answer, but I had to ask. The head maiden shook her head, and
then, as though her heart grew heavy, finally turned to look at Ami.
“This is why you were brought here.”
Ami held her hands up as if surrendering. “Oh hell no.
Whatever it is, hell no. We’re getting out of here.”
“If there are no shrine maidens left, then the station cannot be
protected, and if it’s not protected, then…”
“That’s not my problem!”
“You have a responsibility as—”
“I don’t have shit! I don’t care who you think my ancestor was,
nor why that matters to me now.”
“You will not be able to leave…”
“Watch me.”
“Only one may go.”
“…What?” At that, Ami froze and her eyebrows furrowed.
“Only one of you may leave. The car only makes one trip back,
and if there is more than a single being on it, well…” The shrine
maiden’s words trailed off. “It’s not pretty. That is why the creatures
are fighting so desperately to reach it now. As long as the car
remains here, only one may leave. You, or them.”
“One? But…”
A horrible feeling settled over me. It wasn’t me that the station
chose. It was Ami with the blood of the old shrine maidens running
through her veins. It didn’t care how many came through, as long as
that connection was there. But going back was a different matter.
Only one could leave. It didn’t even have to be one of us. It could be
one of those creatures, or even… a shrine maiden, I supposed. But
would they really abandon their duty? I looked at the scarred maiden
lying at my feet, her chest rising erratically as she held the bloody
wound on her side. No, they would not leave. They made their
decision and would stay here until they died, or corrupted, or
whatever it was that happened here in the unseen part of the
mountain.
“I’ll stay,” I said. Ami was ramping up to argue with the shrine
maiden again, but stopped and turned to me.
“Say what?”
“I’ll stay,” I repeated. “Only one can go back. It should be you.”
“Are you insane? We’re both going. How do we know she’s not
lying to get us to stay here and fight these… things with them?”
“We don’t. But I’m not willing to take that chance. I’m staying.”
Ami crossed the short distance between us, grabbed my arms
and shook me hard. “Are you listening to yourself? Come on, let’s
go.” She tried to pull me, but I planted my feet flat on the ground.
“Think about it, Ami.”
“I have! And they’re full of shit!”
“You know they’re not. You saw with your own two eyes what
happened. And it’s going to keep happening. They’re going to keep
coming until that cable car leaves. It should be you.”
“I’m not hearing this.”
This time I grabbed her and forced her to look at me. “I’m the
one who wanted to find the station. I’m the one who dragged you
along. If you’d gone with Ayaka then…”
“…Then you wouldn’t be here either! It doesn’t matter whose
idea it was. None of this makes sense and I want to go home!”
Tears bristled in her eyes. She was frightened and confused.
She wasn’t alone. There was another screech outside, and all eyes
turned towards the closed door. Something else was coming for the
station.
“We have to go. Now.”
 I grabbed Ami’s wrist and flung the door open. I ran outside
before either her or the shrine maidens could stop me, and Ami
followed blindly.
So this was what it had all come down to. I couldn’t let Ami get
stuck here because of my own curiosities. She didn’t deserve this.
None of them did, but the shrine maidens had accepted their duty to
protect the shrine and protect the mountain from the things lurking in
the beyond. And they would keep dying, one by one, until that cable
car was gone again. It brought fresh blood, but it also cost far more.
Only one could leave. It had to be Ami.
Another screech sounded in the distance. The call of the cable
car, of freedom, was too strong. They would keep coming until one
broke free. I ran blindly, dragging Ami behind me. Maybe I didn’t
have the blood of former shrine maidens in my veins, but I could still
do my part. I could save my friend. I could help the remaining shrine
maidens. In time, I was sure I could pick up their ways as well.
Maybe, at some far flung point in the future, I could even return
myself. I laughed a little on the inside. It was nice to keep hope, no
matter how futile, wasn’t it? That was how people got through the
tough times. Hope, no matter how minuscule, no matter how far
fetched.
“Momoka… wait…” Ami called out breathlessly behind me.
“We can’t,” I replied, almost out of breath myself. “It’s just up
ahead.”
Ami fell silent and something else roared to our left. The shrine
maidens had taken a beating. They likely didn’t have much left in
them. As the phantom station came into view, a terrifying thought
crossed my mind, the reality of the situation settling in. This might be
the last time I ever saw Ami. This was it. Once she was on that car
and it started rumbling away, I might never see her again. I might
end up like that other shrine maiden, the one they said “corrupted.” I
might lose my sense of self and warp into one of those monsters too.
I might try to escape on the cable car and find my way back to the
mountain… back to Ami.
I pulled her up the stairs, her feet dragging as she struggled for
breath. A smile spread across my face before I could stop it. We
made it. There was a scream in the trees on the other side of the
station, something high-pitched that set my nerves on edge and
made the hair on my arms stand on end. The shrine maiden was
also yelling something behind us, trying to keep up.
It didn’t matter. None of it did. I pulled Ami to her feet, opened
the door to the cable car, and then shoved her inside. The shrine
maiden caught up as I closed it again.
“What are you doing?” she asked, out of breath.
“What I have to.”
“This isn’t your duty,” the shrine maiden managed to get out
between breaths. Ami banged on the door in front of me, but I held it
shut.
“It’s not hers, either. She didn’t ask to come here. I did. If I had
known, well… it doesn’t matter now, does it? I’m taking
responsibility.”
The shrine maiden stood up, her chest still heaving, and a
stony expression settled over her face again. Ami continued to bang
on the door next to us, screaming to let her out.
“You are aware of what this means, yes?”
I nodded. The shrine maiden gave a single nod in agreement
and, just for a moment, a bittersweet look filled her eyes.
“She will not forgive you for this.”
“I know…”
So many things I wanted to say. To do. Hold her hand just a
moment longer. Brush that lock of hair from her face. Tell her all the
things I actually felt inside but always hid. Sit on the couch and
watch movies with her again until the sun rose. Talk about all the
stupid things the other kids got up to at school, and the salacious
rumours we’d heard about the teachers.
And tell her she was the best thing that ever happened to me.
But there was no time. As if on cue, the cable car shuddered to life.
Ami started banging even harder on the door, screaming at me to
open it. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t now. It was too late. I held a
hand up to the window. Ami pressed hers against it, tears streaming
down her face. Confusion filled her eyes, and that hurt most of all.
 “Thank you,” I said, my voice breaking as those simple words
escaped. I was sure she didn’t hear them, but she broke into fresh
sobs and then the car started to move away, back down the
mountain. Back to Mount Yami.
The screeching on the other side of the station got even louder.
It was close. Very close. The shrine maiden handed me a mirror. It
was covered in blood, no doubt that of its previous owner.
“There is little time to explain,” she said. I nodded. This would
no doubt be a “learn on the job” type of thing anyway. I turned and
watched the cable car disappear into the darkness, Ami watching me
the whole time. She was crying and yelling something. A coldness
settled over me that wasn’t the weather.
“Are you okay?” the shrine maiden asked. It was oddly…
human. I looked up, tears in my eyes, and forced a smile. She
nodded in return and placed a hand on my shoulder. A simple, gentle
gesture that I feared might buckle my knees that instant, but I
continued standing.
“We can talk after,” she said. “As long as you want. But for
now…”
The scream got closer.
“Time to get to work,” I said. She smiled. I took a deep breath,
looked one last time in the direction of the now disappeared cable
car, and sighed.
“Let’s go.”
 Kubinashi Forest

“What did you say this place was called again?”

“Kubinashi Forest. Keep up.”
“You’ve hit me with 100 years of history and at least 20 different
places in the last hour, come on…”
Hina continued walking, pushing through some branches at eye
level and letting them smack me in the face as I followed.
“Oh, come on, really?” I complained, but Hina said nothing. She
either didn’t hear or was ignoring me. “So like, why is this place
named Kubinashi Forest, then? Is it full of headless ghosts or
something?”
“Something like that.”
I stopped in my tracks. “Wait, seriously?”
“What did you expect?” This time, Hina stopped and turned
around.
“Well… I don’t know. But not that. And where are we going,
anyway? You’ve been talking at me for the last hour and yet to once
tell me where we’re actually going. I’m getting a bit old for all this
traipsing around the forest, you know?”
“You’re 22.”
“Tell that to my bones.”
Hina rolled her eyes. “You’ll see when we get there.”
I groaned. Why did she always do this? Best friends since
elementary school and she had a skill for never getting to the point. It
drove me nuts.
“Fine. But this better be worth it.”
At that, Hina turned around and smiled. “Oh, it will. Trust me.”
“You’ve never once given me a reason to trust you.”
“Oh, you wound me…”
We trudged through the forest for a few more minutes in silence
before Hina perked up.
“Wanna hear a story?”
“No.”
“Sure you do.”
“I’ve heard enough.”
 “This is a good one.”
“You always say that.”
“Because I’m always right.”
I sighed. “Fine.” I followed in her footsteps as she spoke to the
wind before her, not even bothering to turn around to face me.
“Alright, so, long ago, there was this babysitter from a village at
the foot of the mountain. One day, she went to collect some
mushrooms from the forest. She was real poor, you see, and the
babysitting job didn’t really cover what she needed to survive.
Anyway, she put the baby on her back and set out to collect the
‘shrooms. If she could find enough, not only could she feed herself,
but she could sell some for a little extra money. It wasn’t like she was
leaving the baby unattended either, so win-win for everyone.”
“Uh huh…” My attention drifted elsewhere. The forest was
unfathomably humid and sweat ran down my neck. Weren’t
mountains supposed to get colder the higher you went? Sure, we
weren’t that high up, but still… Did they always feel like this? If so,
then gross.
“So while she was out collecting mushrooms, she stumbled
across this shrine. It was all rundown, rotten, looked like nobody had
touched it for several decades, if not more.”
“Let me guess, it was haunted?” I turned to look at Hina’s back
again. She shook her head, still looking straight ahead.
“No, and don’t interrupt.”
“Fine.”
“Anyway, she walked over to the shrine, the baby still asleep on
her back and a satchel of mushrooms tucked under her arm, and this
cold breeze blew over her. Cold enough to make her shiver, despite
the unseasonably warm weather that day. She stared at the shrine
for a few moments before she finally realised that she could hear
something.”
At that, Hina fell silent, and I walked into her back as she
stopped.
“…What?”
She held a hand up and squinted, peering into the distance.
“What?” I said again, more impatiently this time.
 “Do you see that?”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? You’re not even done with your
story yet, which isn’t very scary by the way, and you’re trying to
scare me with the oldest, lamest trick in the book?”
She shook her head and pointed. “Look.”
Sighing, I squinted and tried to pick out what she was
apparently seeing. “I don’t see anything. What is it?”
“…I could have sworn I saw someone walking out there. But…
they were tall. Too tall…”
“Yeah, yeah, ha ha. Very scary. Can we keep going now? I
don’t want to be out here all day. I have work tomorrow.”
Hina continued to stare into the distance, her mind apparently
elsewhere, but then she shook her head and started walking again.
She’d have to try harder than that if she wanted to scare me.
“So then what?” I asked.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, uh. So, she heard something, right? It seemed
to float towards her on the breeze. She couldn’t make out the words,
but it was definitely a voice. Thinking that maybe there were some
people in the shrine, she went inside, but she couldn’t find anything.
The place was empty, old, and smelt bad. As she went to leave, the
baby started crying and the voice on the wind got even louder. Loud
enough to almost make out what it was saying, and that terrified her.
The babysitter dropped her mushrooms and ran, the baby on her
back screaming louder and louder until suddenly it just stopped. The
voices stopped, the wind stopped, everything. The babysitter feared
that she’d found an entrance to an alternate dimension or something,
but terrified, she kept running.”
I continued trudging along behind Hina as she told her story, but
Hina was still eyeing the forest to the right of us. She was probably
waiting for the right part of the story to turn back and scare me again.
The story wasn’t even that good. Sounded like any old scary story or
folktale passed down over the ages. Might have been scary back
then, but it sure wasn’t now.
“So then what?” I asked.
“She ran all the way back to the village, her head down and
focused the entire way. She didn’t even realise that the baby was
being oddly quiet. And there was a good reason for that.”
“Let me guess, the baby wasn’t there? A ghost stole it.”
“I said don’t interrupt me.”
“Fine.”
“And no. The baby was there. At least, most of it.” At that, Hina
turned to look at me. Her face was blank, no hint of a cheeky grin or
even pretend fear. No expression. Nothing. “Remember the name of
this forest?”
“…Kubinashi? The baby was missing its head?” Eww. Well, that
was gross.
She nodded and turned back. “When the babysitter reached the
village, she finally stopped and removed the baby from her back. But
when she did, she realised why it had been so quiet. The baby’s
head was gone, cleanly cut off, as though it had never been there to
begin with.”
“Oh, eww, that’s gross. What the hell, Hina?”
“That shrine she visited, it was the home of a kami-sama long
forgotten. Greatly upset that nobody venerated it anymore, it took
revenge upon those who visited its shrine and yet did not pray to it.
They say that the voice she heard that day was that of the lost kami-
sama, and that once it has set its sights on you, the only way to
escape is to run and never look back, because if you do…”
“…Then you lose your head.” Kubinashi Forest. Of course.
What a stupid tale. How did that even make sense? Did someone
really go to all the trouble of making a story like that just to explain
why the forest had a stupid name as well? Or was it the other way
around? Did it even matter?
Suddenly, Hina stopped again, although I managed to avoid
bumping into her. “I’m not falling for it this time either, you know…”
“What? No. We’re here.”
I stepped up beside her to see what she was looking at.
“…And what exactly is this?”
“Doesn’t it look familiar?”
“…Should it?”
It was… an old shrine. Tiny, barely even big enough to be
called a shrine, really. There wasn’t even a shrine gate in front of it,
at least that I could see. The remains of the building had no roof and
were wildly overgrown with weeds and trees. The only way to tell it
had even been a shrine was the general shape and the thin veneer
of vermilion on what remained of the walls.
“Did you really not listen to a single thing I just said?”
Then it dawned on me like a hammer to the face. “Ohhh… wait,
what? This is the shrine from that dumb story?”
“Excuse you.”
“Oh, come on, you have to agree it wasn’t very good.”
“Good or not, it was a true story.”
I raised both eyebrows and tried to hide the laugh threatening
to escape my lips. “You seriously want me to believe that was a true
story? That a kami-sama stole a baby’s head because he was angry
people no longer prayed to him?”
“I don’t care whether you believe it or not. It really happened,
and this is where it took place. Wanna go inside?”
I blinked a few times, trying to understand the situation before
me. “Okay, hold on. You believe that story is true, and yet you still
want to go inside? Into the, bear with me here, the shrine where the
kami-sama will cut your head off once you leave. Am I hearing this
correctly?” She wasn’t making any sense one way or the other.
“Only if you turn around.”
I nodded my head in understanding that I truly didn’t
comprehend at all. “Uh huh. Alright. Well, look, thanks for bringing
me here, I suppose, but you feel free to go on in and take a look
around. I’ll wait out here.”
“So then, you do believe it?”
“What?”
She turned to me and smiled. “You say you don’t believe the
story, and yet you don’t want to go in. So then, you do believe it.”
“Don’t go twisting my words.”
“So then, which is it? I mean, if you think the story is dumb, as
you said, then you should have no problem going in. After all, it’s not
real, is it?”
I put my hands on my hips and frowned. A trickle of sweat
dripped into my eye and I wiped at it with my shoulder. “Whatever
game you’re trying to play, it’s weird.”
“No game. But if you don’t believe the story, then I don’t
understand why you won’t go inside.”
“Why is it so important to you?”
“It’s not. I just don’t get it.”
I sighed. I took one step inside the shrine grounds and then
held my hands out. “See? I’m here. Happy now? Geez.”
Hina smiled again at that. It was a strange, almost nasty smile
I’d never seen before, but then it was gone as soon as it appeared.
Quick enough to make me doubt whether I’d seen it at all. Maybe I
was just tired. Seeing things that didn’t exist, painting Hina in a light
she didn’t deserve because I was honestly exhausted and just
wanted to go home.
“Well? Did you wanna look at this place or not?”
Hina crossed her arms and grinned. “Nah. Maybe I’ll just wait
here till you’re done.”
“…Are you serious?” Visions flashed through my mind of
running over and smashing her in the face. She really baited me to
come in here when she had no intention of doing so herself? What
on earth was she up to?
Then she laughed and stepped over the threshold. “Geez,
you’re so uptight.”
I narrowed my eyes at her and bit my tongue. Nothing good
would come of what I wanted to say to her.
“Come on, let’s take a look around.”
There wasn’t a lot to look at. Hina ran her hand along the
remains of the wall as she peered into the remains of the shrine. She
picked up an old charm and dangled it in front of me. “Woooo,
spooky!”
“Cut it out.”
“Seriously, you should have seen your face. You looked like
someone murdered your cat.”
“I’m gonna murder you if you don’t quit it.”
She put the charm in her front pocket and beamed. “Well, now
I’m protected, so you can’t.”
“Seriously, don’t mess with that stuff. It’s creepy.”
 “It’s just a piece of paper.”
“You wanna get cursed? That’s how you get cursed.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in that sort of stuff?”
I threw my hands up in the air and Hina laughed. She was
incorrigible. I couldn’t deal with her anymore. I finished a quick lap of
the shrine and then waited by the remains of what appeared to be
the shrine gate. A thick piece of rotted wood stuck out of the ground,
with another smaller piece also sticking out of the ground a few
metres to the right.
It was kinda sad, the more I thought about it. If the story was
true, then a kami-sama used to be venerated here until people forgot
all about it. Then their shrine fell into ruin, nobody could even
remember their name or why they were here, and once all the
people who remembered the kami-sama had died off, nobody would
ever remember who they were again. That was no way to go.
Would the same happen to me? Of course it would. At some
point, everyone I knew would also pass away. People died a physical
death when the body went and then a final death when the last living
person with memories of them passed on as well. At some point, that
would happen to me and it would happen to Hina too. It would
happen to everyone we knew. Our existence entirely wiped from
memory, nothing left behind to remind people that we had once
existed.
And the same had happened to this kami-sama. The only thing
keeping the kami-sama from total death were these shrine remains
and, apparently, a story.
A damp, humid breeze blew, making the sweat on my skin feel
even warmer. Eww, gross. Yet with it came something else, and I
perked up at the sound. A voice? No. The only other person here
was Hina, and I could see her rummaging through something up
ahead. Her lips weren’t moving.
A bird? An insect? Yet another breeze blew, and this time the
sound was a little clearer and the wind a little colder. A chill settled
over my skin in the damp heat. Was there somebody else here with
us? That was definitely a voice.
 “Hina…” I called out, my eyes still searching the area. No
response. “Hina!”
“What?” She stood up, holding something in her hands.
“I think we should leave.”
“Are you scared again?”
“Yes.”
She didn’t seem to expect that honest response and left what
she was doing to join me. “Are you okay?”
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the thing in her hands.
“Huh? Oh, I found this in the rubble over there.” She held up
what looked like a book. It was old and falling apart, covered in dirt,
and looked like it might crumble into dust at any second.
“Are you gonna bring that back?”
“…Why not?”
“Are you serious? It’s gross. Leave it here. And that charm too.
It’s bad luck to take stuff from ruins.” Again, the words flitted through
my mind. You wanna get cursed? Because that’s how you get
cursed. But more importantly, the hairs on my arms still stood on
end. That sound had unsettled me more than I wanted to let on.
“I figured there might be something about the kami-sama in
here. It’s sad, don’t you think?”
“What?”
“That nobody comes here to venerate them anymore.”
It was sad. But it was also the last thing on my mind at that very
moment. Another breeze blew, this one even colder than the last,
like a blast of frozen air from a freezer, and the sound got louder.
Clearer. A chill ran throughout my entire body.
My name. It said my name.
“We should go.” I grabbed Hina’s arm and squeezed, my eyes
still searching the area for the invisible threat.
“What’s gotten into you?” she said with a frown.
“You don’t hear it?”
“Hear what?”
“That sound. That… voice.”
“Are you being serious right now?”
 I turned to look her in the eyes. Yes, yes, I was being very
serious right now.
“…Wait, are you actually trying to mess with me right now?”
Hina laughed. “Wow. That’s… I gotta admit, that’s a very poor
attempt.”
“I’m not… Look, you do what you want, but I’m going.”
“Shizuka! Wait!”
I crossed the threshold, and it was like a bucket of frozen water
was dumped over me. I almost turned back at my name, but then I
stopped dead in my tracks. It was stupid, but… what if it was true?
What if I turned around to answer Hina and something claimed my
head? The lost, forgotten kami-sama of this abandoned shrine who
had it out for any and all that crossed their path.
Was it worth the risk? Whatever I believed or didn’t believe…
surely the best answer here was to keep moving forward. Why tempt
fate? If the rumours were just that, then sure, nothing would happen,
but if there was even a slither of a chance that some angry kami-
sama might claim my head, did I not owe it to myself to perhaps
pretend that might be true until I was out of the danger zone?
It sounded stupid, but at the same time, I had clearly heard it.
My name on the wind. Why take the chance? Let Hina laugh at me
once we both reached the safety of the bottom of the mountain. How
hard could it be?
“Shizuka!” Hina ran up beside me. “Seriously, you’re going?”
I couldn’t look back at her. I couldn’t. Even if I wanted to. My
stomach tightened and my throat threatened to close entirely. Even
the hairs on the top of my head felt like they were going to stand up
like when you touch one of those crazy electricity balls.
“I am. You can join me if you want.”
“You don’t… wait, seriously? Hey, look at me.”
I shook my head. Hina laughed. It wasn’t a joyful laugh, but
rather full of disbelief, and perhaps even frustration. “Shizuka!”
I said nothing. I kept my head down on the forest floor and kept
walking. Another wind blew, wisping at the sweat on the back of my
neck. The forest was silent. Hina wasn’t following. I didn’t know what
she was doing, and it would remain that way. I wasn’t turning around
for anything. She could make a fool of me all she wanted, but that
sound, my name on the wind, there was no other way to put it. It
spooked me. Maybe she planted one of our friends there who did it.
It didn’t matter. I wouldn’t take the chance. Make fun of me all she
wanted. At least I’d be alive.
“Alright, fine, let’s go then. Geez, you’re no fun.” Suddenly Hina
jogged up beside me. We walked side by side in silence for a few
moments. Out the corner of my eye I spotted that book still in her
hands.
“Really? I told you to get rid of that.”
“No. I want to see if there’s anything in it.”
I grabbed the charm from her breast pocket, scrunched it up,
and tossed it behind me. Without looking, of course.
“Hey!”
“Stop tempting fate.”
“What has gotten into you?”
“I heard it.”
“Heard what?”
“My name. It was just like the story. I heard my name on the
wind. It wasn’t clear at first, but by the third time there was no
mistaking it.”
Hina fell silent at that. Her eyes scanned the area in front of us,
but I could tell she was also fighting the urge to turn around. Why
was it so hard? I didn’t think I turned around the whole way up the
mountain, but I could if I wanted to, so it was no big deal. Now that it
was forbidden, it was like my neck was trying to crank itself around
of its own accord. The lure of the forbidden. That was a thing, right?
“You were probably just hearing things,” she said, turning her
eyes to the book in her hands instead. She was spooked too. Good.
She should be.
“…So uh, how far do we have to go before we can… you
know?”
Hina looked up at me. I was too scared to even turn to look at
her. How far was too far? Did I really want to risk it? I looked at her
out the corner of my eye. Good enough.
 “I dunno. The story said when the babysitter returned to her
village. So… bottom of the mountain, I guess?”
Screw it. I just wouldn’t turn around until I was safe in my own
bed. Then I’d spin and turn all I wanted like a maniac to unleash all
the pent-up feelings.
“Hey look!” Hina held a page up in front of me. There was a
dark drawing of something monstrous with some messy writing
around it. “I guess this is the kami-sama?”
“How can you be sure?”
“It says ‘sama’ here. I can’t make out the rest though.”
The creature on the page certainly didn’t look like my image of
what a kami-sama would look like. Weren’t they supposed to be
majestic? Attractive, or at the very least, dignified? And… human in
appearance? They were the pinnacle, after all, the top of the ladder
of all existence. Yet this thing… it looked like a creature someone
had created in a dark cave without seeing what it actually looked
like. Its limbs looked more like scythes than actual limbs. Maybe it
wasn’t a kami-sama like I was thinking of, but rather an evil spirit that
people venerated because they feared it. A tatarigami or something.
…Of course! That explained everything. And now it was super-
pissed because nobody worshipped it anymore, and nobody was
trying to placate its anger. It wanted blood, and it would take what it
could get.
“Hina.”
“Hmm?”
“If we make it back… I’m never speaking to you again.”
“Fair call.”
I cast a sideways glance at her. She was smiling, but it didn’t
reach her eyes. She was just as scared as me. Good. She should
be. This was all her fault.
Another breeze blew across the back of my neck. Again I heard
it. “Shizukaaaaa.” The final sound drew out before tapering off. The
voice was deep. Harsh. All the hairs on my body stood on end and
my stomach twisted and turned. I couldn’t even look at Hina out the
side of my eye. I was too afraid.
“D-Did you hear that?” I asked.
 “Hear what?”
She didn’t. It was just me. Well.
“Just now.”
“Hear what?”
“Like your name… or my name?”
“No. Why? Did you?”
I nodded, my eyes straight ahead. We walked at a brisk pace,
fighting my legs that wanted to run, but I knew that if I did, I would
trip over something and I couldn’t risk it.
“Are you serious?”
Again I nodded. Hina fell silent at that and our legs carried us
through the hot, humid forest. Sweat continued to pour into my eyes,
making it hard to see at times. I wiped at them with the sleeve of my
shirt, but each time I did, I feared that I might turn back too far and
my heart raced.
“So, where did you hear that story?” I asked as we walked. My
heart beat so loudly that I could hear it pounding in my ears.
“About the shrine? My mum told it to me when I was little. I
guess it was passed down in this area.”
Made sense, but it also didn’t soothe my nerves. Another
silence fell, the only sound the leaves and branches crunching
beneath our feet. Every now and then another wind whipped up,
caressing my neck like invisible fingers.
It was there. I couldn’t see it, but I was sure of it. The kami-
sama, the tatarigami, the monster, whatever it was, it was following
us. Waiting for its opportunity. How it worked, I had no idea, but
maybe we needed to look at it for it to claim our heads.
“I found it!”
“Found what?” Hina was still going through the book.
“The kami-sama’s name! It’s a little difficult to read, but it looks
like… Koku… yuu? Black weasel? That can’t be right…”
She held the book in front of me. That was certainly what it
looked like. Old, ancient characters that had faded into the dirty
paper looked like the characters for black and weasel. My blood ran
cold.
“That’s… your name.”
 It was. Kokuyuu Shizuka. I’d always liked my surname because
it was so rare. I’d never come across another person with it outside
of my immediate family.
“No way…” Hina muttered.
“What?” My heart was pounding. I kept my eyes on the ground,
focused on walking as fast as I could without looking to either side
and without falling over, but I had to admit, the tone in Hina’s voice
shook me.
“Well, the babysitter who escaped, apparently she was shamed
and bullied out of the village. The villagers knew that she wasn’t at
fault, technically, but they still blamed her for the baby’s death.
Apparently she moved to the next village over with a new identity
and married into a poor family there. And her husband was…”
“…Kokuyuu. My ancestors.” My head spun. Nothing made
sense. “Wait, wait. How come you know about this but I don’t? I
thought that was just a story?”
“Well, so did I… But I guess Mum was just passing down a
family tradition. I mean, it makes sense, right? Your family probably
didn’t want to remember their ties to the kami-sama anymore, so
over the generations they just… stopped talking about it. They hoped
people would forget. Their ties to the spirit broken.”
Something still didn’t make any sense. “That book, it says
Kokuyuu-sama, right? But if my ancestors, the man who married the
babysitter, was already named Kokuyuu, then why do they share the
same name?”
Hina shrugged. “Maybe that wasn’t actually her husband’s
name at the time. Maybe he took that after meeting the babysitter. It
was said that people looked after that shrine for a long time. Maybe
the babysitter felt so bad for the death of the child that she took it
upon herself to venerate the kami-sama so that no others would die.
And in doing so, both she and her husband took on the same name
to remind their family of what they must do.”
Again that wind brushed across my neck. Again I heard it.
“Shizukaaaa.” So that was why Hina couldn’t hear it. It was calling
out to me and me alone. I stopped in my tracks. Hina walked a few
steps, her head still in the book, and then stopped. It was like
watching a movie in slow motion. Her neck turned, her body still
facing forward, and she looked at me. I barely had time to open my
lips to scream when there was another gust, the sound of something
sharp cutting through the air, and then Hina’s head fell cleanly off her
shoulders to the dirty forest floor below. The same expression
remained on her face the whole time: one of confusion and shock.
“Hina!” I screamed. Her body followed a few seconds later,
crumpling like a doll that just had its strings cut. The book in her
hands tumbled next to her head, still open at the terrifying drawing of
the creature. Kokuyuu-sama.
My head went blank. My body trembled, unable to keep itself up
any longer, and I fell to my knees. Hina’s shocked face stared at me,
the light in her eyes fading. My cries would be the last thing she ever
saw, ever heard, and then, just like that, she was gone.
She was gone… The story was true… Part of me thought that it
was honestly nothing more than a fairy tale, an interesting piece of
folklore passed down over the years that had no substance to it, but
the other part of me that feared that maybe, just maybe, it was true
had been proven right. And it cost Hina’s life to do so.
I threw up on the ground in front of me. I wanted to lie down
and never move again. How had it come to this? This was supposed
to be a fun day out. If I had any idea that it might even vaguely end
like this…
Pulling myself forward, I grabbed the book that had tumbled
next to Hina’s head. I did my best not to look at her, and as I touched
it, a jolt ran through my body. I could have sworn I heard the same
voice again, but this time it wasn’t on the wind. It was directly inside
my head. They weren’t words, and yet I understood what it wanted.
Rebuild the shrine. Make people remember. Bring worshippers.
Bring many of them. People would continue dying until that was
done. But what could I do about that? I didn’t know any shrine
builders. I didn’t even know anyone involved in shrines or temples to
begin with. I wasn’t even vaguely religious. The wind wisped at my
neck, along my arms, around my waist, and over my hair. Clutching
the book, I stood up, steeled myself, and turned around.
 I closed my eyes, bracing for my head to fall off just like Hina.
Yet nothing happened. Confused, I opened my eyes and, in the
distance, saw something lurking behind the trees. Something dark.
Something of indeterminate shape and radiating numerous emotions
that terrified me. Its limbs, if they even were that, appeared to be
long, sharp, and rotating. Again the wordless voice sounded within
me. Restore my glory. More will die until you do.
I turned, leaving Hina’s body where it had fallen, and stumbled
forward, my legs carrying me of their own accord. In a daze I
descended the mountain, the book Hina picked up in hand, with
each step heavier than the last. The police would retrieve her body.
As long as they didn’t enter the shrine grounds, everything would be
fine. Her death would be treated suspiciously, as it should, but
ultimately it would be chalked up to some freak accident. Perhaps a
freak unseasonable kamaitachi incident, for those who believed in
such things.
And then it hit me. Kokuyuu. Black weasel. Kamaitachi.
Perhaps that was what the kami-sama actually was? Not an actual
kami-sama, but a warped, corrupted kamaitachi with grand delusions
that it was divinity, but now nobody remembered it. Not even the
family that bore its name…
The voice continued in my head the entire way down. A long
chat with my parents was in order. I owed it to Hina. I owed it to her
and all the others who had needlessly lost their lives over the years
to make sure that it never happened again. Even if that meant
appeasing an evil creature who killed out of spite. Something warped
and twisted by its long years of neglect on the sacred mountain.
Time to revive the long-lost Kokuyuu duty. For Hina.
 The Springkeeper’s Residence

My grandfather was a priest on Mount Yami. He died in the landslide

that destroyed the mountain when my grandmother was still
pregnant with my mother, and as such, I never got to meet him. Yet
my grandmother spoke of him often, and highly, and growing up, I
always wished I could have met him just once. He was a brave man,
she said. Noble and steadfast. The other priests looked up to him,
and even the shrine maidens, technically higher than him when it
came to the mountain’s religion, took his advice in their stead and
treated him with the utmost respect.
Of course, I had no doubt that at least some of it was
embellished. Grandpa was just a man, after all, and nobody was
perfect. Yet despite the strange look that crossed her eyes on
occasion, my grandmother only spoke the highest of praise for him.
He was a man like no other. If I could grow up to be half the man he
was, then I would be the finest man around, she said. Lofty heights
for one who had never even met him, but they were words that often
hung in the back of my mind. They helped shape me growing up.
Would Grandpa do this? How would he react in this situation? The
image of a man I never met, perfect in every way, formed in my head
and he became my reference when my own father left without word
one night. Don’t be like him, I told myself. Be like Grandpa.
Two weeks ago, a colleague from work showed me something
interesting. He came from the big city, a rare case of someone
moving out rather than in, and he was fascinated with how “quaint”
our little town was. He’d especially taken an interest in the history of
Mount Yami, a location famous all over the country but not so well-
known these days, and he showed me something he’d found on the
internet. Rumours of a mayoiga. A lost house that seemingly
appeared and disappeared at will.
“You know those aren’t real, right?” I said to him as he leaned
over my desk. Technically, he was older than me, but I had been at
the company longer, so he spoke to me respectfully while failing to
hide the excitement in his voice.
“How do you know? Have you ever seen one?”
 “Well, no. Of course I haven’t.”
“And have you ever seen a lion in person?”
“…What? Well, no, I guess.”
“But they exist, don’t they?”
“Sure. Just because I haven’t seen one personally doesn’t
mean they don’t exist.”
He clapped his hands together as though he’d gotten me. “See!
Just because you personally haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it’s not
real!”
But that wasn’t the part that interested me. As he described
what this mayoiga supposedly looked like, the hairs on the back of
my neck stood on end. It was a simple, old Japanese-style two-story
house. There was a small yet well-kept garden with a large pond full
of carp. From the eaves hung varied oni masks overlooking the yard,
and by the front door was a small nameplate with two characters that
had, for the most part, faded away. The first character appeared to
read “white,” but nobody was quite sure.
I knew exactly what it said. My grandmother had told me long
ago. Shirazawa. The name my grandfather had adopted when he
moved to Mount Yami and became a priest there. Only the highest,
most important priests were allowed to adopt this sacred name, a
symbol of both the mountain and their sacred duty to it. My
grandmother kept his last name even after his death, but when my
mother got married she changed it to my father’s surname, the same
name I still had.
The stories my grandmother told me about as a child also
mentioned the oni masks hanging from the eaves, something she
didn’t especially like because of how creepy they were, but Grandpa
insisted on them. They were important to keep the evil spirits at bay,
or something like that, he said. She also mentioned the carp pond,
her favourite spot in the yard, numerous times.
He was describing my grandparents’ house. The mayoiga was
my grandparents’ house. How could that be?
I didn’t let him in on my suspicions, but I got on the internet that
night to check it out for myself. And there it was, plain as day.
Several people who had stumbled upon this creepy house. That was
it. No ghost stories or monsters or anything. It just looked old and
abandoned, and that would have been the end of that if not for one
simple thing: sometimes the house was there, and sometimes it
wasn’t. The directions to find it were also right there in the thread.
Numerous people confirmed they had visited that very spot and
found nothing, while others had found the mysterious, rotting old
building. It all matched up with the stories my grandmother had told
me. Close to Kuromizu Shrine, yet hidden deep in the forest. It was
important for the top priests to live nearby, yet away from the “rabble”
of the public.
I had to see it with my own two eyes. The man I spent my life
comparing myself to, the grandfather I never met, lived there. Died
there. If it was at all possible, then I absolutely had to see it for
myself. The thought of it made me giddy. Setting aside the weirdness
of it… that was my grandfather’s house. My grandmother got
pregnant with my mother there. It was a part of my history. Part of
me. And it was supposedly wiped out in the landslide, yet here were
stories of various people who had found it. Whatever was going on, I
had to go and check it out for myself.
Finding the location was easy. Instructions were right there,
after all. The problem was whether the house would be there when I
arrived. I didn’t wait around. The following Saturday I would set out
and find it, one way or another.
Which brought me to this dark, damp forest, all alone and trying
to find the particular landmarks that would lead me to my destination.
A large pine tree with a hollow in the trunk. An abandoned yellow
tent. A tiny collection of Jizo statues missing various body parts. And
they were all there, just like the thread had stated. Which meant…
“…Holy shit.” I stopped in my tracks and my heart raced. I
hadn’t really believed it. It was just a story on the internet, after all,
no matter how accurate the details were. But… there it was. It looked
a little different to how I imagined it, but then I’d never actually seen
it before, so that was to be expected. But no doubt about it. Large
carp pond. Oni masks hanging from the eaves. A nameplate by the
door that was too dirty to read.
The mayoiga was my grandparents’ house. I’d actually found it.
 I stepped across the invisible threshold, holding my breath for
something to happen. Maybe I’d get sucked into another dimension.
Maybe a monster would come tearing out of the house. Or maybe…
I stopped again. My heart pounded even louder in my ears.
Something was different here. Wrong.
The house… it was supposed to be old and rotted. It was
destroyed in a landslide, after all, and over 50 years had passed
since then. That was how everyone who managed to find it
described it. Yet… I scanned the entire area. It looked brand new.
Like it had been built just recently. Had someone rebuilt it? I frowned.
Did someone find the remains of my grandparents’ house and claim
it as their own?
I strode towards the door before I could stop myself and pulled
it open.
“Hello?” I called out.
“Close the door, quickly!”
I wasn’t expecting a reply and jumped in surprise. “I-I’m sorry?”
“Close the door! Now!” It was a man’s voice, but I couldn’t see
anyone. I did as instructed and closed the door behind me.
Something that sounded like a distant roar filled my ears and I
swallowed. A face poked out from around the corner, eyes stern yet
exhausted. My heart skipped a beat.
“Who are you? How did you find this place?”
“I-I…” I stammered. Where did my voice go? “I’m Hiro.” That
was all I could get out.
It was him. My grandmother had only a single photo of my
grandfather, one of the few things she managed to save from the
house before running. No doubt about it. He was standing right in
front of me. It hit me that the house stank of incense and something
else I couldn’t quite place my finger on. The man—my grandfather—
frowned and then disappeared behind the wall again.
“Alright. Good for you. Why are you here, Hiro?”
I shook my head as though trying to clear my thoughts. “I…
uh…” How was I supposed to explain to this phantom that I heard
rumours that my grandparents’ house, destroyed in a landslide 50
years earlier, was actually still here? Well, sometimes, at least. The
more I thought about it, the crazier it sounded.
“You okay, boy?” He stuck his head back around the corner
again. Whatever he was doing, he couldn’t or wouldn’t leave it. I
forced a smile and nodded a little too hard. He narrowed his eyes
and went back to his work. Taking a deep breath, I decided to
approach him. Now or never.
“Uh… what are you doing, sir?” I asked, approaching on shaky
legs. This was him. My grandfather, in the flesh. Somehow. I wanted
to reach out and touch him, confirm him to be true, but I was also
scared of the answer I might get either way.
“That was my question,” he answered. His voice was deep and
resonant. Comforting and full of authority. It was easy to see why my
grandmother loved him so much. She never married again after his
death, and my mother was the only child she ever had. Technically,
his family name ended with her as I inherited my father’s. That made
me feel somewhat melancholy.
“I, uh, I was out walking and got lost,” I lied. He looked up from
what he was doing, considered me a moment, and then went back to
it. He appeared to be cutting various herbs? It was hard to tell with
his back to me.
“Uh huh. You chose a bad day to get lost, son.”
That word sent a jolt through me. My father had been a decent
man, up until he left without word, at least, but to be honest, I’d never
looked up to him. He was never cruel, but never kind, either. He
didn’t treat me with contempt, but he never showed fatherly love,
either. He provided, and that was his job. All of that “childrearing
business” was my mother’s domain. And then he just vanished. As
such, my grandfather had always been my vision of the perfect
father, and hearing him call me “son” was… indescribable.
“Um, why do you say that?”
Finally, he stood up and considered me a moment. He was
almost a head taller than me, and I wasn’t exactly short myself.
Broad shoulders, full chest, some slight stubble on his strong jawline.
No wonder my grandmother was in love with him. He could easily
have been a model rather than a priest.
 “You heard that noise, did you not?”
I nodded, unsure of what else to say.
“Well, I’m not sure how you found your way here, but there’s not
much we can do about that now. You’ll just have to help.”
“…Help with what, sir?”
He turned back to what he was working on. There were various
items surrounding a complex pattern of salt on the floor. “We’re
under attack.”
“…Under attack?”
“It’s a long story.” One he didn’t look like he intended to explain.
“There are no waters here, so this house is the only safe location for
now, but it won’t stay that way. They’re trying to break in. We have to
make sure they can’t.”
“…I’m sorry sir, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“No, I would presume not.” He put a weighty hand on my
shoulder, and that gesture alone reassured me. Nothing would best
this man, not even a landslide that wiped out his house. That house
that I was presently standing in… somehow…
“Your clothes are kinda funny. You from out of town?” he
suddenly said, his brow furrowing. I looked down, confused, and
then laughed.
“Oh. Uh. Yeah, something like that.” It was only 50 years ago,
but he probably hadn’t seen much resembling “modern” fashion back
then. “So, uh, what are you, you know, doing here?”
He raised an eyebrow and then continued. “I’m the
Springkeeper of this mountain. It’s my job to keep watch over the
waters that make this mountain so sacred.”
The Springkeeper? My grandmother had never mentioned
anything like that before. I nodded as though I understood what that
meant, and he continued.
“The rumblings have been becoming more violent. The water
threatens to spill forth. They’re trying to break free. We cannot allow
that to happen again. Last time it did…”
Was he talking about the landslide? Wait, so then… he knew
that happened? But he died in that landslide. How could that be?
“Um… what do you mean by last time?”
 He scratched the back of his neck and turned back to his
preparations. “It was a catastrophic failure. Something went wrong,
but I haven’t been able to figure out what. I was saved, but I… I don’t
know what happened to my wife.”
My mind raced. He didn’t know Grandma made it out. He didn’t
know that his house had been destroyed. That none of this should
be. He turned back and forced a smile.
“Anyway, that disaster cannot be allowed to happen again. We
were able to contain what we could, but only temporarily. And now
she’s trying to get to me so that I can’t stop her again.”
I got the picture, mostly. Mount Yami suffered a catastrophic
disaster 50 years earlier. It was blamed on a typhoon, but if what my
grandfather was saying was correct, then that wasn’t it at all. The…
waters… of the mountain broke free and caused all that destruction.
But who was this “she” he mentioned?
I opened my mouth to ask another question when something
roared outside. My grandfather jumped to his feet and grabbed my
shoulder, pushing me behind him.
“We’ve no time. Shit. They got through.”
“…Who got through? What’s going on?”
“They’ve broken through the barriers keeping this house safe.
Dammit. They want the dark waters to erupt once again. Once the
waters are free, so are they. We mustn’t let that happen, you
understand?”
No, I didn’t. But I also knew that whatever was making that
sound, I didn’t want to meet it, either.
“Some of them got free last time. That was my mistake. I
mustn’t let it happen again.”
…Some of them got free? Did that mean…?
“Look, sir, I’m not sure I entirely follow you, but what do you
need me to do?”
He smiled and my heart fluttered. It was like a proud father
looking at his son, and all my life that was all I wanted. He made me
feel like I could do anything, even battle those monsters outside, if
he said I could.
 “The waters beneath this mountain are what makes this
location so sacred, do you understand?”
I didn’t, but I nodded.
“The water you see in the rivers, the water that flows to
Kiyomizu Bay, it’s sacred. Clear. Clean. Pure. But that’s not how it
begins.”
He still wasn’t making sense, but I nodded again. I didn’t want
him to stop talking and think me a fool.
“It originates from beneath Kuromizu Shrine. The public never
sees the source, and for good reason. It’s unclean. It warps.
Corrupts. There are maidens and keepers like myself working
around the clock to purify it, to sate the mountain itself. It’s a never-
ending process.”
I still wasn’t fully following, but I could imagine what he was
getting at. Without these priests, these “keepers” and the shrine
maidens, then bad stuff would happen because of the unclean
waters on the mountain. And so, the monsters outside were trying to
get to him. Sure. Made sense, in a way.
“The water, it flows all over the mountain. Kuromizu Shrine is
the source, but it’s not the only location the water flows forth from.
There are shrines and temples all over the mountain, yes? Each of
those is strategically placed and manned to keep the waters under
control. But recently…”
“There aren’t enough people?” I asked. He nodded. A question
burned on the tip of my tongue. As much as I didn’t want to ask it, I
had to.
“Sir… you mentioned the last time. What happened?”
He sighed. “We were unable to soothe the rumblings.
Something… something happened. Corrupted her before we could
stop it. The water burst forth. The mountain, or at least much of it,
was destroyed.”
I nodded. That was what happened, yes. But… “If the mountain
was… destroyed… then how are you… you know… here?”
Didn’t they say that if you alerted a ghost to the fact that it was
dead, then it would turn violent and destroy everything around it?
Was he a ghost? I still had no idea what was going on.
 At that he smiled, as though he knew the question was coming.
“Let’s just say things work a little differently here.”
That made even less sense. Despite all the questions swirling
around in my head, one reached my tongue before I could stop it.
“Have you had any visitors here since… you know?”
He frowned and shook his head. “You’re the first living soul I’ve
seen in… Well, since my wife.”
His wife. My grandmother. Sadness washed across his face for
a moment before he forced a smile. But if I was the first person he
saw, then what was with all the other people who had found his
house? They claimed it looked old and decrepit, yet the house I was
standing in looked brand new. Did they find a different one? No, they
couldn’t have. This matched the descriptions perfectly.
“You look kind of familiar…” My grandfather’s deep voice
interrupted my thoughts.
“Hmm? I’m sorry?”
“Have we met before?”
My mind raced again. Should I tell him? Would that mess with
things somehow? Would his mind be able to accept that I was his
grandson? Wouldn’t it be better for him to know that his sacrifice
wasn’t in vain and that his wife escaped? That she lived a happy,
healthy life because of him.
“…I get that a lot. Just a common face, I guess.” It hurt, but it
didn’t feel right. Not at that very moment. He nodded and turned
back to his work.
“Anyway, the rumblings of the mountain have been clear.
Another disaster is coming unless we stop it. I don’t know who is left,
but as the Springkeeper I must play my part.”
“What can I do to help?”
“There is a tunnel beneath this house. One direction leads to
Kuromizu Shrine and the source. The other direction leads further
downhill. That’s where my wife… Anyway, we must reach the source.
Once my preparations are done here, we must reach the shrine at
any cost. Do you understand?”
I nodded. At any cost. Right.
 As if on cue, something screeched outside the house. There
was a splash, and then the sound of something dragging through the
dirt. My grandfather froze.
“She’s here. We don’t have much time.” He lowered his head
and started chanting. Panicking, I looked around the room for a
weapon, or maybe something to hide under. I grabbed a nearby
broom and held it at the ready. Nails scratched the outside of the
walls. The thing was circling the house. My grandfather continued
chanting, occasionally tossing some salt and burning some incense.
“Please hurry,” I muttered under my breath, my knuckles turning
white as I gripped the broomstick. The door rattled and I screamed.
The chanting continued, and then he tossed a bucket of water over
the salt. Something sizzled, and an acrid smell filled the air.
The door rattled once, then twice, and then finally burst open. I
closed my eyes and screamed, waving the broomstick in front of me.
Then my ears themselves seem to vibrate, like something
threatened to burst my eardrums from the inside, and I turned
around before I could stop myself.
“Oh… oh my god…”
There were no words to adequately describe the sight. Judging
by the clothes, the thing before me used to be a shrine maiden, but
her face… her face was… gone? No. It wasn’t gone. It was there,
but I couldn’t see it. It warped and shifted, there then gone, and my
eyes refused to register it. A dark aura emanated off her pale, almost
translucent skin. She approached us slowly, her strides deliberate.
Powerful. She feared nothing, and most certainly not us. Her eyes
were on my grandfather, not me, and when I turned to look at him, I
saw it. The thing he was struggling with.
The creature, for that was all my brain could comprehend, had
long, gangly limbs with sharp claws at the end. The dark, wet hair
hung over its face and dripped something dark to the floor below.
Each drop fizzled as it landed. It had presumably been a woman
once, but now it only resembled that shape in the vaguest of terms.
My eyes traced back and forth between the two monsters. The
spirit of the shrine maiden, dark and corrupted, and the spindly
creature trying to skewer my grandfather with its sharp claws.
 “No!” I screamed. I swung the broomstick towards the shrine
maiden, but it went straight through her. Of course it did. The lack of
impact sent me tumbling, and the shrine maiden only cast the
briefest of glances in my direction before turning back to her real
target.
Grandpa.
His eyes widened in shock and, understanding what was about
to happen, he turned to me with a smile. He nodded, ripped
something out of his pocket, and almost faster than my eyes could
keep up with, he turned and smashed it onto the creature’s face. At
the same time, its long claws found their target. They sunk into my
grandfather’s chest with a howl, and both man and creature fell to
the ground with a sickening thud.
“No!” It was all I could scream as I watched the horrific scene
happen in slow motion before me. Neither Grandpa nor the creature
moved. The shrine maiden hovered nearby, watching the scene with
what I could only assume was amusement. I dropped to my knees
and grabbed him. Blood spurted out of the holes in his chest. The
creature next to him, a charm stuck to its face, didn’t move. It was
dead. Or perhaps incapacitated. Did it matter?
My grandfather coughed and blood splattered all over his chin
and chest. Dark liquid poured from the holes in his clothes.
“Oh god, oh god. What do I… Dammit!” I tried covering the
holes with his robe and pressing down on them, but it did little good.
They were too large.
He grabbed my wrist with a shaky hand and looked me in the
eye. A tear escaped before I could stop it and fell on his chest.
“I’m glad… I got to meet you, Hiro. You’re a fine boy. The best a
father could hope for…” He smiled, and with another cough, his grip
on my wrist weakened.
The tears spilt forth in a torrent, the dam of emotions finally
bursting. He thought I was his son, not his grandson. He suspected it
the moment he saw me, perhaps. It didn’t matter. They were the
words I wanted to hear all my life. But not like this. Not like this…
His grip slackened and then his hand dropped to the floor. After
all that, he was gone. He’d been fighting to save the mountain for
who knew how long, and just like that, one of those creatures burst
in and ended his life.
It hurt. It burned like nothing I’d ever felt before inside. A slight
rumbling shook the house, and as I looked up, it seemed to fall apart
around me. Pieces of wood rotted and crumbled. The ceiling above
me bowed, and pieces of wall fell to the ground. The shrine maiden
was still looking at me. At least, I thought she was. It was kind of
hard to tell without anything that resembled a face. I couldn’t look at
her for too long without fear of going insane.
Yet she approached me as the house continued to fall apart
around us. A strange buzzing filled my ears the closer she got, and I
tried covering them with my hands, but it did no good. The sensation
was inside my head.
Scrambling back, the shrine maiden continued her approach
unabated, even as pieces of wood fell around her. It didn’t affect her.
Of course not. I took one last look at my grandfather and, with a pain
that threatened to tear my heart out, ran. I ran through the darkness,
the sound of the house collapsing behind me. In the distance, I could
hear shrieks in all directions. I had no idea where I was running, but
it didn’t matter. I just had to get away.
Branches scratched at my face. Rocks tried to send me flying to
the ground. I ducked and dodged and jumped, the whole time tears
stinging my eyes. After all that, I finally met my grandfather in the
strangest of circumstances, and then…
I almost collided with something and landed hard on my
backside as I fell back to avoid it.
“Ow…”
Watery eyes attempted to focus on what I’d nearly run into. Not
a tree. No, most definitely not a tree. My heart climbed into my throat
as my eyes scanned all the way up. Up and up and up… Feet…
long, thin legs… a simple white dress… up and up my eyes
continued, my mouth opening and closing a few times in disbelief.
Finally, when I reached the top, my neck was straining with the
height.
“W-What the…?”
 It was a woman. An incredibly tall woman. I could barely see
her head amongst the tree branches, and the large hat on her head
covered most of her face. But I did see one thing clearly. The last
thing I would ever see. Her grin as it rapidly descended upon me.
There was a laugh somewhere in the distance behind me. The
shrine maiden, no doubt.
I screamed.
Then all went black.
 Kuromizu Shrine

I was only young when I first felt the call of it. The call of Mount Yami.
I saw it in my dreams, despite never having been there in person. I
sure did hear a lot about it though. You might even say it influenced
my decision to become a priest. I heard all the stories, saw
numerous pictures of it—both before and after the disaster—and
something about it just spoke to me. That was where I should be.
That was my home.
A strange feeling, to be sure, and I did my best to ignore it.
After all, there were no longer any manned shrines or temples on the
mountain. There was very little of anything, really. Only the ruins and
remains that the typhoon wasn’t able to take. So, even after I
became a priest, it wasn’t like I could simply head over and start
working there. There was nothing left.
Yet night after night, it called to me. I visited it for the first time
only a few weeks after I was ordained, and the feeling was
indescribable. The mountain itself spoke to me. That was where I
was supposed to be.
So why, then, did I continue working elsewhere? Like I said, not
like I had much choice. A man’s gotta eat and all that jazz.
Until they fired me. I can’t say I was terribly upset. On the
contrary, it was a long time coming. They didn’t like my particular
method of… practice. They claimed to follow a certain creed, a
certain sect, if you will. A particular way that we priests were
supposed to behave, and this influenced all the things we could and
couldn’t do. They didn’t believe in rituals. Thought it hokey-pokey
with no scientific basis. Men who believed in eight million gods
worried about whether something had a scientific basis or not.
Hilarious, right?
The final straw was an unsanctioned ritual that almost cost a
little girl her life. I told the family to keep clear of the house while I
cleansed it, and yet… Well, that was all in the past. Far more
important things stood in front of me. Literally. I beamed, unable to
keep the smile off my face.
 There she was. Right before my very eyes, finally, after all
these years. Kuromizu Shrine. Despite my numerous visits to the
mountain, I’d never once visited the main hub. The source,
according to the rumours, of her power.
She was magnificent. Even more grand than I expected after all
these years of abandonment. I’d seen grainy pictures of her in her
heyday, but even those did no justice to the ruins before me. The
main shrine gate rose so massively high that I had to crane my neck
to see it. Vermilion paint chipped and flaked here and there, but it
was in otherwise good condition. An old, stone-paved path led to the
numerous buildings behind it, but dead ahead, about one hundred
metres in the distance, was the main attraction itself. The main
shrine building.
According to the stories I’d heard from other priests, that was
where all the important Mount Yami business was conducted. There
were secret rooms upon secret rooms that not even the priests who
worked there at the time knew about. It was said that only a select
few, both shrine maiden and priest, knew all of the shrine’s inner
workings. Others were on a need-to-know basis.
Yet there was one story that intrigued me the most. The story of
the Springkeepers. The name alone lit a fire within me, caused a
sensation of feelings I couldn’t explain. That was it. I didn’t know
what “that” was, but the moment I heard it, I had to know more.
“I dunno the full details, obviously, but I heard from another
priest who heard from one of the shrine maidens who escaped all
those years ago that there was a secret cave beneath the main
building at Kuromizu Shrine. That was where the Springkeeper
business was conducted. Something to do with the waters that
flowed down to Kiyomizu Bay or something like that,” one of my
fellow priests-in-training once told me.
“What did they do there?” I asked, trying to hide the trembling in
my voice. He shrugged.
“She never said. Just that they carried out particular rituals
down there, but it went wrong and that was what really caused the
disaster that wiped the mountain out.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Are you serious?”
 Again, he shrugged. “Like I said, that’s just what I heard, and it
was third-hand knowledge by the time it reached me. Who knows?
Sounds pretty silly if you ask me. How could a ritual cause a typhoon
to destroy a whole mountain?”
But what if it wasn’t the typhoon? What if that was just an
unlucky coincidence and something really did happen down there
that day that caused the extinction of the Mount Yami religion? What
if it were to happen again? What then? Would it be contained to
Mount Yami, or would it this time spread out further, taking the whole
town at the foot of the mountain with it?
The Springkeepers. The word alone caused a rush through me.
I didn’t know how or why, but it called to me, and I no longer wished
to fight it. They did something beneath this shrine. I would find out
what it was and satisfy my curiosity once and for all.
A massive sacred rope hung in front of the main building
entrance. Untouched in over 50 years, the straw had mostly rotted
and turned black with decay. I put my hands together in prayer
before it, then with a single clap I passed beneath it. Did the kami-
sama of the mountain, of this shrine, even reside here anymore?
Was he or she also wiped out, trapped somewhere with no way out?
Was that what the rituals were for? Was the kami-sama waiting for
someone to break them free and restore them to their former glory?
Or was it far too late for that now?
As I stepped through the rotted entrance, a horrific smell
assaulted my nostrils. Decay. Mud. Mold. Death. I covered my nose
with my sleeve and coughed into it, but it did little to keep the stench
out.
“Well, what did I expect?” I muttered to no-one in particular.
Much of the inner sanctum was full of mud, dirt, and overgrown vines
and trees. Nature had reclaimed what was once hers. It was
beautiful in its own way. Definitely not the smell, but the visuals were
astounding. I’d seen numerous shrines abandoned during my time,
but none like this. Nature was wild, cruel, and vicious, but she was
also nurturing and full of new life. One thing ended so another might
begin. It was the circle of life that all things must go through.
 I tested various doors leading to numerous rooms and halls.
Most were rotting and falling apart, and the rooms held little of
interest. Of course not. This was the public-facing part of the shrine.
Few people would be welcomed in here, of course, but that didn’t
mean it still wasn’t supposed to be presentable to the public. The
real “meat” of the shrine was elsewhere. That was where the
Springkeepers did their real business. And what business was that? I
was dying to know.
It surprisingly didn’t take too long to find. After entering
numerous rooms and briefly losing track of where I was, I found it. A
lone door different to all the others. This one was heavy and black.
Plain. Nondescript except for two exquisite characters carved at
roughly eye height. Kuromizu. My heart thumped wildly. Yes. This
was it.
Something behind me clattered to the floor and I jumped. My
head spun before I could stop it, and a small cup rolled on its side
before coming to a complete stop.
“…Hello?” I called out. There was no response. Of course not. I
stared at the cup a few moments longer. Where had it come from?
How did it fall? There was yet another creak from behind me, and
once again I spun around. This time coming from the door and… I
looked closer. The door was open.
I opened my mouth to call out again, but no sound came out. I
took one step, followed by another, my feet leading me against my
own will. My trembling hand reached out for the door handle and
gripped it tightly, as though my life depended on it. It was ice cold.
So cold it felt like it was burning my hand, yet I gripped tighter and
pulled, my arm also working of its own volition.
With a heave, shudder, and a loud creak, the black door
opened and darkness spread out before me. Dread, followed by a
rush of excitement, flowed throughout me. I turned back once more,
confirming that I truly was alone, and then stepped into the darkness.
Something dripped in the distance. The light from the open door
above me shone down on stairs that descended further and further
into the ground, but the light didn’t reach the bottom. How far did the
stairs go? What awaited me down there? Chills ran up and down my
body; both fear and excitement. I pulled my lighter out, the tiny flame
dancing on the slick walls on either side of me, and proceeded
further down.
After descending for what felt like several minutes, I finally hit
the bottom. I was deep in a cave, and the sound of running water
grew stronger. This had to be it. I couldn’t stop the smile from
forming on my face. The long-rumoured source! This was where the
Springkeepers worked! It had to be! The source of the mountain’s
power. Her spirit. Her soul. Her life essence. That was why this
shrine was built here. This was what made the mountain so sacred,
so powerful.
A piece of wood lay at my feet. The remains of a torch once
affixed to the wall, perhaps. I pressed my lighter to it and, thankfully,
the fire took. Holding it in front of me, I looked around the cavern I
found myself in.
“Amazing…”
The cavern itself was not large, but it appeared to be only the
entrance. Slick, dark waters coated the cavern walls, and the smell
was… certainly unique. Different to the death above. This smelt
more stuffy. Smothering. And perhaps a hint of sulphur. Like it was
choking the life out of me to replace it with something else.
I rounded the corner and stopped in my tracks.
“Oh… oh my…”
It was true. It was all true. A large pool of water spread out
inside a massive cavern several times larger than the room at the
foot of the stairs. It was so large, so wide, that I couldn’t see where it
ended with the torchlight alone. Yet as I approached the waters, my
heart skipped another beat. They bubbled and warped, constantly
shifting and changing. But that wasn’t what caught my eye. Not
really. The waters… they were black. Pure black, like tar.
“Kuromizu…”
I barely finished the thought when a scream tore through the
tiny cavern. I dropped to my knees, the torch spilling from my hand
as I tried to cover my ears. The flickering light cast horrifying
shadows on the walls, but once again, that wasn’t what caught my
eye. It wasn’t what made my breath catch in my throat and my
stomach contents threaten to spill forth.
“What the…?”
I had no time to finish the sentence. A shrine maiden, or at least
what had once been one, lunged for me. Images flashed through my
mind as her icy cold hands tightened around my neck. My screams
ended in my throat as I fought the onslaught of images assaulting
me. The typhoon raging outside. Springkeepers working furiously
above the black waters. Shrine maidens running to and fro. The
earth itself rumbling. The waters, pure black, splashing over the
shrine maiden. Consuming her. Pulling her into the void.
Screams. Death. Dark waters spilling forth from the spring, from
the rivers, from the mountain itself. Kiyomizu Bay turning black. The
mountain’s rivers, its lifeblood, its veins, turning dark as night. The
mountain giving a large shudder, as though sighing, and then
shedding her skin in the downpour. Dirt. Mud. Trees. All consumed
by the dark waters exploding all over her surface, mixing with the
torrential rain and leaving nothing alive in its wake. Shrines.
Temples. Homes. The cable car. All destroyed. Or so it appeared.
Many remained standing, but not as they had once been. Their
physical forms destroyed, many were sucked into the mountain’s
underbelly. Her “other” face. Warped and twisted, horrific, failed
copies of their former selves. And it wasn’t just them. The people
and animals too. The shrine maidens. The visitors unlucky enough to
still be on the mountain at the time. All of them, consumed.
Yet the shrine maiden and the Springkeepers, those consumed
by the black waters of the source, it was their screams that pierced
my brain, making me violently ill. Icy fingers continued to press
around my throat, seemingly inside it, making it difficult to breathe.
The assault of images halted almost as quickly as it began and my
legs gave way beneath me, yet I did not drop. As I looked up through
teary, blurry eyes, the shrine maiden continued to look down on me,
her face… there and yet not.
Only the black waters could have created such a monstrosity.
And she wasn’t alone. More like her lurked in the distance, their
familiar yet foreign dark caps rising high. The Springkeepers. Those
also destroyed by the black waters they were supposed to keep
watch over. Yet something went wrong that day and resulted in all of
this. And, if I didn’t do something soon, my death as well.
My vision swam. Black dots swirled in front of my eyes. I
groped around in my pocket, hoping against hope that I’d brought it
with me. My fingers pressed against something hard. Yes. There it
was. No good priest worth his money would leave home without it.
I pulled the tiny bottle out and flung it at the thing draining the
life from me. The glass shattered into tiny pieces and the holy salt
within it did what I needed it to do. A shriek filled the air and the icy
cold grip on my throat relented long enough for me to fall to the
ground and scramble back. It wouldn’t stop her for long, but it was
enough to momentarily distract her. All I needed.
I’d waited my whole life for this moment. I was hired and then
fired for this very purpose. All the rituals I’d carried out over the
years, the dark aspects I studied secretly, away from prying eyes, it
was all for this.
The dark waters bubbled and churned. The shrine maiden, her
face warped even more than the black water that consumed her
soul, recovered from her momentary shock and began her approach
once more.
Now or never. If this didn’t work, then it was all for nought and
my life would be forfeit. Everything my elders ever said would be
true. This maiden and all the other monsters like her would continue
to claim this beautiful, sacred mountain as their own, warping and
twisting it for their own sick purposes.
I began chanting. With trembling hands, I pulled another small
vial of salt out of my pocket and poured it on the ground in front of
me. With one hand I drew various symbols in it while contorting the
other into various shapes. The shrine maiden continued unabated,
her steps slow and assured. Were they even steps? She seemed to
float towards me at a smooth, even pace.
It didn’t matter. No time for her. A small crowd of Springkeepers
gathered behind her, perhaps drawn to the noise and fresh blood.
Not long until she reached me, until they all consumed me and
perhaps forced me into their ranks. Or maybe they would just end
me. Perhaps that would be the preferable way to go here.
The salt fizzled and started to turn black. The shrine maiden
was almost upon me. A strange sound, almost like a buzz, filled my
ears. No, not a buzz. A voice. It was her voice, distorted and leaking
from whatever made up her face.
Springkeepers surrounded me, spreading out from behind her
and encircling me. The waters continued to bubble and churn, wisps
seemingly reaching out to grab me and pull me in too. Somewhere
up in the shrine, something screamed. Or maybe laughed. Perhaps
both.
It didn’t matter. I looked up, smiled at the maiden as her arms
reached out for me, finding myself getting lost in the warped vision
that was her face, and then I slammed my open palm down on top of
the salt on the ground. With a final chant, my voice filled the cavern
and the salt beneath my hands fizzled, charred, and then melted into
a giant slab of crystal.
“You’re free,” I said triumphantly, right as the shrine maiden’s
fingers pressed into my throat. I closed my eyes and waited. Either it
worked and we were all free, or I was about to die a cold, painful
death.
I waited. And waited some more. The icy wisp around my throat
retreated, and when I opened my eyes, the shrine maiden and
Springkeepers stood wavering around me, frozen on the spot. Slowly
the maiden’s face took shape, twisting and turning, the vortex
gradually solidifying into something that resembled a young woman.
I smiled.
She did not.
The earth rumbled beneath us and her eyes went wide. Her
gaze shot to the bubbling waters beside us.
“There’s no time! We must stop it before the black waters
consume the mountain again!”
“Wait, again? What?” My brain was still several steps behind. It
had taken all I had to remember the numerous steps required for the
ritual to bring the shrine maiden back from the darkness that had
claimed her and now… what? It wasn’t over yet?
 The Springkeepers sprang to life around me. Their spirits ran
for the edge of the source, their heads bowing deep in prayer as they
began chanting.
“What are they…? What’s…?” I couldn’t get the words out. This
wasn’t over? Huh? But… I saved her. I saved them all. They could
move on now. The black waters would consume them no more. They
were free.
“There’s no time, so you’re just going to have to do as I say,
alright?”
Her voice sounded strange. Familiar. It was like that buzzing in
my head, but without the buzz, if that made any sense. I slowly stood
to my feet and nodded. “Yeah, sure, but—”
The shrine maiden pointed to something in the wall behind me.
Something I hadn’t even seen in all the panic and getting rushed by
ghosts. It was barely visible, but it was there. A small dip in the
cavern wall. A handle. I shuffled over, careful not to slip on the wet
floor as more and more water spilt forth, and pulled. The door
opened.
“What in the…?”
Inside was what I could only describe as the Springkeeper’s
head office. Numerous ritualistic items, clothing, books, scrolls,
supplies, you name it.
“Put that on!” The cold voice came from behind me. I jumped.
“Now!”
I nodded and grabbed the Springkeeper’s hat. It was different to
a traditional priest’s cap, but only in ways a trained eye could see. I
then grabbed the robe beneath it and quickly shrugged it on. A
power surged through me—entirely in my mind, no doubt—and I
stood up taller. Yes. This was it. This was my calling in life.
“Grab that gohei,” the cold voice continued. A piece of wood
with various pieces of white paper hanging from it leaned against the
wall. It didn’t look like any gohei I’d ever seen before, but I did as
instructed and picked it up. The pieces of paper weren’t zigzag
shaped like they usually were, but a variety of shapes that didn’t
immediately strike me as anything I recognised. Circular. Curly.
Straight. Some even looked kinda like people, if you squinted hard
enough.
“Now that book.”
I picked up a book from a tiny desk in the room. Particles of
dust floated in the air and I coughed.
“Come.”
I followed the cold voice back out into the cavern. The spirits of
the Springkeepers continued their relentless chanting, and I realised
that now I looked just like them. I had become a Springkeeper, if only
for the moment, and the thought filled me with joy.
But it wasn’t over yet.
“What do I have to do?”
“Start reading.”
“…That’s it.”
“Now.”
“Alright, alright.” She didn’t need to tell me twice. Her cold voice
still struck fear in my heart, even though at first glance she looked…
somewhat normal now. She had mere moments ago tried to kill me.
Part of me still couldn’t believe that the ritual worked; it wasn’t
something I’d ever had the chance to try in real life, after all, but all
my years delving into the obscure now felt justified.
I opened the book to the first page, and after a quick scan,
found the start of what appeared to be the Springkeeper’s ritual
chant. The words didn’t make any sense at a glance, but I started
reading, joining the chorus of ghostly voices around me.
Again the earth rumbled beneath our feet. I faltered and almost
tripped, yet it had no effect on the spirits around me. They continued
as if nothing happened, and when I looked up at the shrine maiden,
she was chanting as well. It was something a little different to the
Springkeepers, and she was also holding… a mirror? Where did she
get that? It didn’t matter.
The black waters churned and surged. The images I’d seen
from the shrine maiden again flashed through my mind, causing my
heart to quicken. Those surging waters had claimed her during one
of those rumblings. It claimed them all. Now, even in the afterlife,
they were still here doing their duty, trying to soothe and protect the
mountain.
If they could do it, I could do it too.
As I became more confident with the words, my voice rose
louder, joining the cacophony filling the cavern. I jumped as another
shrine maiden appeared beside me, and then another down the line.
They also held mirrors and were dressed different to the
Shrinekeepers. Where they came from, I didn’t know, but it also
didn’t matter. The voices of the Springkeepers rose while the shrine
maidens’ lowered. Their mirrors reflected the black water back upon
itself, and my hand started shaking the gohei before I even knew
what I was doing.
The earth rumbled. Dark water splashed onto the floor by my
feet. I jumped back instinctively, but nobody else seemed to notice. A
loud roar filled the cavern like a beast, and a massive bubble burst in
the waters before me. It surged and roared like a giant creature
beneath it was struggling to break free.
I chanted louder. My heart pounded in my ears and I was so
frightened that I feared I would pass out then and there, but the
louder I yelled, the less I focused on that horrible knot in my
stomach.
As the cacophony of voices reached a crescendo, the shrine
maidens all turned their mirrors at once to the same spot. I hadn’t
even noticed it before now, but there was another mirror on the other
side of the source, half submerged in the black waters. As each
mirror hit it, it shone so bright that it blinded me. I averted my eyes
as the room seemed to fill with light, and in an instant, the rumblings
stopped.
Everything fell silent. Silent enough to hear a pin drop.
“…Is it over?” My voice suddenly felt oddly loud in the silence.
Opening my eyes, I almost fell backwards in shock. The waters…
they were clear. No sign of the blackness that had just threatened to
engulf us all once again.
To the left and right of me, the spirits of the Springkeepers
smiled at each other and then slowly started to fade. There were no
high fives. No congratulatory slaps on the back. They just faded, one
by one, disappearing into the ether, their work finally done, and a
deep melancholy filled my heart. They—no, we—did it, and now they
could finally move on after decades of being trapped by the dark
waters’ unholy powers.
I turned to the shrine maiden next to me and a gentle smile
tugged at the edge of her lips.
“It is done.”
“So it seems.”
There were so many things I wanted to say. Wanted to ask.
There would never be enough time for them all, but as I opened my
mouth to ask at least one, the shrine maiden cut me off.
“You must carry on,” she said. “This is not the end. Only the
beginning. The waters must be cleansed, do you understand?”
I nodded.
“The keepers of Mount Yami cannot be allowed to disappear.
As long as they remain, the mountain will stand strong.”
She started to fade before my very eyes. “Wait! I have so many
things I want to ask!”
She smiled. “All you need to know is right here. Find more.
Bring them here. The waters won’t remain clear forever.”
“They won’t… but… what do I do?”
“You already know.”
With that, she was gone. They all were. I stood alone in the
dark cavern, light flickering from the torch on the wall. I looked down
into the clear waters, reflecting my face back to me like a mirror. The
Springkeeper’s hat. The Springkeeper’s robe. The gohei in one hand
and book in the other.
Yes. I knew exactly what I had to do. Like she said, I had to find
others. More keepers like myself to soothe the dark waters and keep
the mountain safe. Keep the mountain protected. This was only a
temporary measure, a stop gap. The waters would turn dark again,
and we had to be ready.
It was time to restore Mount Yami to her former glory.
Everything we needed was right here. I smiled.
“Alright. Let’s do this.”
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Also available from Tara A. Devlin:

Kowabana: ‘True’ Japanese scary stories from around the internet

Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends

Bankai: Bizarre Japanese Internet Mysteries

Kaihan: Bizarre Crimes That Shook Japan

Reikan: The most haunted locations in Japan

Aokigahara: The Truth Behind Japan’s Suicide Forest

The Torihada Files

Sumikowa: The Haunting of Higanbana Heights

Reiwa Tanpen

Read new stories each week at Kowabana.net, or get them delivered

straight to your ear-buds with the Kowabana podcast!
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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tara A. Devlin studied Japanese at the University of Queensland
before moving to Japan in 2005. She lived in Matsue, the birthplace
of Japanese ghost stories, for 10 years, where her love for Japanese
horror really grew. And with Izumo, the birthplace of Japanese
mythology, just a stone’s throw away, she was never too far from the
mysterious. You can find her collection of horror and fantasy writings
at taraadevlin.com and translations of Japanese horror at
kowabana.net.

Read more of Tara A. Devlin’s works on Amazon!

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