“So have you heard about the faceless kid?”
They were on their way home.
When Natsuna Aikawa glanced at Yurie Miyamoto, who was walking ahead of her, she looked fed up.
Natsuna hated two things: One was picking up bugs, and the other was listening to her sixth-grade classmate Yurie talk about urban legends. On the other hand, Yurie’s favorite pastime was searching for new spooky stories online, and she especially loved to regale Natsuna and their other best friend, Rin Oomori, with her frightening finds during their walk from school.
Some urban legends Natsuna and Rin had already been subjected to included the dog with the human face and toilet-bound Hanako, but no matter how many stories she heard, Natsuna always shuddered with every new one, and she wasn’t interested in hearing more.
Unfortunately, Yurie loved scaring her friends, so whenever she discovered a terror from the internet’s treasure troves, she had to give them all the info.
It seemed that day’s new gem was the faceless kid.
“It’s super popular on the internet lately. If you meet a kid wearing a hood, they say weird things will start happening around you.”
“Weird things? Like what?” Natsuna asked. Yurie responded with “Hmm.”
“I dunno what that means exactly, but anyway, weird things happen. There’s lots of online posts from people who’ve seen the kid. Some say they’re wearing a red hood; others say it’s black; sometimes they’re a girl, and others, a boy.”
“Well, I guess that one’s a little interesting…”
Natsuna thought right then that it was the vaguest urban legend she’d heard so far. It wasn’t scary—just a head-scratcher—but that also meant she might get through the day without feeling goose bumps all over. But Natsuna didn’t get to bask in her relief for too long. Yurie grinned as though she’d picked up on those feelings.
“But here’s the part that makes it scary—” Yurie suddenly became serious as she gave Natsuna and Rin a pointed look.
Natsuna couldn’t help but gulp nervously.
“So somebody’s curiosity got the better of them, and they looked at the kid’s face under the hood,” Yurie continued. “And the kid didn’t have eyes, a nose, or a mouth!”
“Like, nothing at all?”
Their face was just smooth? So that’s why they’re the faceless kid? Natsuna’s whole body shuddered at the thought.
It looked like today’s story actually was creepy, too.
Then Rin, who hadn’t said a word until then, stared directly at Yurie and said, “Are you sure that’s not all made up?”
Rin liked urban legends just about as much as Natsuna. However, unlike Natsuna, instead of feeling creeped out, she looked angry.
“Yurie, those stories sound like they’re full of baloney. There’s no such thing as a kid without a face.”
Natsuna nodded along with Rin, but Yurie seemed unconvinced. She glared at Rin, looking serious.
“If it’s all fake, then explain why people say they’ve actually seen the kid.”
Unlike Rin, Yurie really believed in the legends, and that was why she hunted them down every day on the internet.
“There are tons of witnesses who’ve posted online about all the real urban legends they’ve actually come across. Are you saying they’re all liars?”
“Well…”
Rin suddenly had no idea what to say. She really didn’t think everyone was making up their stories. That was when Natsuna turned to her two friends as if she’d just thought of something.
“But I’ve never heard of it happening to anyone I know personally.” Not a single one of her friends or her family members had ever come across a real-life urban legend. “You’ve never seen one for real either, right, Yurie?”
“I haven’t, but…” Yurie deflated as she replied to Natsuna.
When Rin saw that, it was her turn to give Yurie a sharp glare.
“So you really don’t know whether any of it is true, then.”
“Well…I guess not.”
“So that means all of it could be made up?”
“Yeah…” Yurie didn’t have any other answer. She hung her head and looked at the ground.
“Yurie…” Natsuna felt kind of bad, so she broke in between the two. “Rin, that’s enough about this for today.”
“But—,” Rin started to say.
“I know urban legends are scary, but Yurie just likes them, okay? And we’re all friends, aren’t we?”
Once Natsuna said that, Rin answered, “Okay, fine… Sorry, Yurie. We went too far.”
“No, actually, I’m sorry for scaring you all the time with my stories.”
Yurie bobbed her head at Rin in apology. It seemed as though she’d reflected on what she’d done. Rin smiled and seemed in a better mood after that, too.
“Okay, let’s all go home, then!” Natsuna said brightly, and started walking off with her two friends.
“What’s that?”
After taking five steps, Natsuna suddenly heard Yurie whisper to her from behind.
“What’s wrong?”
Natsuna turned around to see that Yurie wasn’t fooling around. She was staring at a rice paddy by the roadside.
“Over there…” Yurie pointed at the center of the field.
Natsuna and Rin, still puzzled, looked in that direction.
“Uh?”
They saw something in the field that was white and vaguely human shaped.
“What is that thing?”
It was four PM in mid-July, so it was a bright day, and they had a clear view of the thickly growing rice paddies. But for some reason, the white thing wasn’t in focus at all. It looked almost like a shadow. Its face, body, arms, and legs were just white outlines, and its whole entire body wiggled weirdly while it stood right in the center of the rice field.
“Is someone playing a prank on us?” Natsuna murmured with fear. “But how did they make themselves look like that?”
Maybe the person was wearing a full bodysuit? Or maybe they were using smoke to make themselves look hazy? Natsuna tried to think of an explanation, when suddenly she heard something deep in her head.
Riiing.
It was a high-pitched metallic sound.
“Ahhh…”
When Natsuna heard the ringing in her head, she felt pain, too—and this wasn’t just any regular old headache, either. It felt as if someone were pounding on her skull from the inside.
“Oww!” It hurt so much, Natsuna could only hold her head.
“Yurie, Rin, help!” she cried out.
Natsuna looked over at her two friends, but they were clutching their heads just like she was.
“Natsuna! My head, it’s—”
“Mine too…”
“Yurie… Rin…”
Riiing. Riiing.
The sharp metallic sound was even louder than before.
Natsuna started to panic. It hurt so much, she was afraid her head would split.
“Let’s go home!” Natsuna said, and Yurie and Rin both eagerly nodded.
All three of them sprinted away.
After a while, Natsuna and her friends stopped running. For some reason, the pain in their heads had disappeared, and they couldn’t hear the ringing anymore, either.
“What happened?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore…”
“Same…”
They felt fine now.
They’d sprinted for three minutes straight, trying to get distance from the field.
“What just happened?”