Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 26⟩
First story
⟨Ghost of Moonless Night⟩
When the night comes, the city becomes brighter, but if you were to step out of it just a bit, you would find a different world. In every corner of the park, not touched by the light of streetlamps, unfathomable darkness wriggled. If you stared right at it, the darkness seemed to come to life and move.
A male student walked alone following a lonesome walk trail. With the eyes that people often regarded as ‘he looks to have a bad temper’, he seemed to glare at the darkness to pierce it, but… in fact he was walking without any thought.
It became his habit now to walk in circles when going home. Was it because the cold house with only him and his father was uncomfortable? That also had to be a reason. However, it probably also was that a simple night like right now, without any meddlesome people around, was just comfortable.
Something might jump out of that darkness, but it was a fact, the night was more comfortable than day. He especially didn’t dislike the spring nights, when things that couldn’t be known in the sunlight, woke up and sprouted to life.
That said, didn’t he go too far?
Abruptly he thought it was too dark.
Yu Dan stopped in his tracks.
Heavenly Eye, which sees through the principles of life and death. For that left eye, things looked pretentiously bright, so he thoughtlessly let his guard down, but…
As he covered the eye and looked again, it was certainly dark. In the contrast with the clarity of the artificial lights, the darkness was thick and seamless.
Yu Dan looked up, into the sky.
No moon.
On the moonless nights, bad things ride on that thick darkness and crawl out…
He heard such words when he was young. In particular, on such dark nights without moon, the elders of his maternal family on the countryside would cut thorny branches because of it. When he sat alone in the garden, he would see shadows quietly creep in front of the door and crouch down.
What were those things at that time?
Yu Dan started to move again.
Thick fragrance of spring flowers spread in the darkness. The wind stirred, and the shadows of the leaves danced chaotically.
Somehow, the strange things only occurred on spring.
He had to go home now.
Loud music rang in his earphones, but he didn’t hear it. Yu Dan lowered the volume, and concentrated on what was behind his back.
His bad premonitions were never off.
From some point, another sound of footsteps followed after his own. Not covered by the music, there were a few kinds of footsteps.
He sneaked a glance.
On the trail, at the end of his elongated shadow, there were indeed several small shadows following.
He quietly put his hand in the pocket and turned off the music. Behind him, he clearly heard whispers.
“Okay. This is enough.”
“Good. Let’s drag him from here.”
“Wait a moment! Are we going to use that strange road?”
“Possess him! Quickly possess him!”
He frowned.
What kind of trick were they playing?
It seemed that not even in their dreams would they expect that a human could hear their words. After they whispered loudly, the scenery in front of his feet swiftly changed. The walk train changed into bushes, and among the bushes suddenly a strange road appeared.
Would you look that?
After he put strength into his eyes and glared at it, everything swayed and returned to their original form. Wouldn’t they be surprised if he wasn’t deceived by their illusion and passed the fake walk trail? He thought so, but changed his mind and stepped on the fake road.
“That’s it! He was fooled!”
“Follow him! Follow him!”
The sound of footsteps became noisy. Even the sound similar to flapping wings was heard.
“Listen! Don’t follow too closely! It’s dang…”
At those words, he suddenly stopped and swiftly turned around.
He saw small figures that cowardly hid in his shadow. It was a long time since his younger days when such small fries rushed at him.
He suddenly stomped on the one closest to him that was fluttering.
“Hic!”
It was a colorful bird. The struggling thing resembled a mandarin duck, but it was subtlety different, though he couldn’t pinpoint it.
“Hey! Big trouble!”
The small figures swiftly rushed at him.
A small old man wearing wide sleeves, a carp with hands and feet, a red-eyed rabbit walking on two feet, an old book flying as if it was flapping its pages… They were strange yokai, which you would find in old folk tales.
“Let go! Let go!”
Everyone ran and hung on Yu Dan’s leg. They shouted to let go, they punched him with their fists, they bit, etc. making a noisy mess.
Yu Dan looked down at them, dumbfounded.
“Even so, aren’t you loyal?”
Even though it wasn’t a dark moon, this place that wasn’t touched by moonlight at all. Under an old tree stump, which no one could find, small yokai knelt down in line.
Yu Dan scolded them.
“What are you doing possessing passing people like this?”
“Our apologies, our apologies. Please spare us. Please forgive us. We didn’t recognize great Person.”
He looked down the yokai who repeatedly bowed their heads,
Usually he would end here. After he gave them a severe lesson and scolded them to never show in front of his eyes again, it would be the end.
However, for some reason he hated ending this here. It may have been because he hated to be a fool. Recently he learned a new truth. Things were secretly more complicated than they appeared. There may be some kind of hidden story behind such simply appearing phenomena.
After they repeatedly begged for a while, he lightly asked.
“Where did you want to drag me?”
“We were wrong!”
“I’m done with it, so speak! Why are you doing it? What do you want? I have to know what it is, so I can judge!”
“Yes?”
Everyone looked with surprised faces at Yu Dan. Even the book flapped its pages as if expressing surprise in its own way.
“Do You mean You will listen to our story?”
“What are you so surprised about? Speak truthfully. In the case you had bad intentions and tried to harm me, I’ll tie you all up and bring you to a very scary place where thousand years old yokai live.”
The small yokai were startled. They poked each other and finally the carp with hands and feet was pushed forward.
“Ahem. Then I’ll speak as a representative. We all lived here for a long time. It’s a quiet area with long history, making it a perfect place for things like us to settle down. But recently we are in trouble. That’s because of…”
The carp hesitated for a moment, tightly closed its eyes and then spit out.
“Ghost of Moonless Night[1].”
“Ghost of Moonless Night?”
“Yes. Whenever moonless night comes, a scary white-haired female ghost is sure to appear around. We don’t know how many of us already fell to that ghost. Now, when the moonless night comes, we die from fear. Even today we could do nothing but gather everyone and tremble, when opportunely we saw You passing by, and You seemed out of ordinary so…”
The words trailed off, as they glanced at him. Yu Dan snapped:
“So you tried to make me fight the ghost?”
“No, well, to be exact…”
The carp cleverly diverted its words.
“You have to be careful when passing through such a place on a moonless night. Because if You ran into something by incident, Your heart would stop. White hair, bluish face, mourning clothes dyed with blood…”
“She wanders around crying, while holding someone’s bloodied head in her arms. It’s terrifying.”
“It was the first time in my life I heard such a hair-raising ghost wail. In addition, when that ghost appears, suddenly it turns cold, so…”
Everyone chatted noisily. While at it, they checked their surroundings, scared and not knowing what to do.
“Not even one of you is in their right mind. Why don’t you calm down?”
“How can we be calm? How wicked that ghost is!”
“And there may be a reason for her to come.”
“Of course there is, it’s slaughter.”
“So calm down a bit! First I have to check if there really is such a wicked ghost wandering around this park.”
“Where are You going? We will go with You! Your shadow feels very safe, please let us hide in it for a bit!”
“Why are you following!? Go there!”
He was arguing like this when…
Suddenly something cold touched his forehead.
Yu Dan looked up.
Something white was slowly falling down from the moonless pitch black sky. He held out his hand and was startled.
It was snow.
But it was spring right now?
The tree’s flowers in full bloom were covered in white snowflakes. Cold wind blew from somewhere. From a distant place, a sorrowful voice was carried by that wind.
“Ack! She appeared! She appeared!”
The small yokai screamed and scattered in four directions. Then abruptly stopped in their tracks, turned around again and grabbed Yu Dan.
“What are You doing?! Please come this way!”
After completely hiding Yu Dan in the bushes, everyone hugged each other and trembled.
“Don’t make any sound, don’t look, please!”
“You can’t be discovered by that ghost! If You’re found, You die!”
“Please, don’t even breathe!”
The things held onto him tightly, and Yu Dan looked at them as if they were absurd.
If humans don’t breathe, they die!
In addition, weren’t they planning to use him to eradicate the ghost in the first place? Did they forget about it? And why did they make so much noise about hiding? It seemed that all of them lost their minds out of fear.
Midst of it, snow kept falling from the sky. While snow piled up on the spring flowering trees, a female ghost in bloodied mourning clothes slowly approached.
The wind turned bone-chilling at some point.
The body trembled in the cold. The ghost gradually drew closer with each cry. Perhaps because that cold wind carried the indistinct ghost wail. The small yokai closed their eyes and covered their ears out of fear.
Loose white hair. Mourning clothes stained with blood.
Was it her blood?
No. The blood was dripping from the lump of a head in her arms, coloring the mourning clothes.
The ghost walked, holding it tightly and only looking forward. The grotesque face was blue from cold and swollen, littered with pockmarks. That face gradually drew closer.
Yu Dan’s eyes opened wide.
It wasn’t scary. It wasn’t even a bit scary.
“What are You doing?”
While the bird yokai covered its face with its wings, Yu Dan stared.
“I’m midst a staring contest…”
“Hic!”
Everyone was terrified.
“In a staring contest with a ghost? You truly have no fear! Then die! Die!”
“But I have to look straight at her to know what… ah? Wait a moment.”
Looking closely, something seemed strange. Yu Dan stared to saw through what was in the ghost’s hands.
“It seems that head has arms and legs?”
“What are You saying?! That’s even scarier!”
“No! It’s not a head! Didn’t you say it’s someone’s head? That’s… a baby! She is holding a baby!”
*~*~*
[1] Ghost of Moonless Night — to be precise, it’s Female Ghost of Moonless Night, but it’s a mouthful, so pardon me for shortening it.
Translator’s note: Yu Dan on his way to become a kinder person… Still a bully though.
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