A, a twenty-four-year-old office worker living in Tokyo, joined a software development company straight out of college as an engineer. Once he settled in and got used to the work, however, he found that his days passed by slowly and without much excitement.
With no girlfriend and no hobbies, A surfed the internet to unwind.
“It’s kind of embarrassing to admit, but I went to porn sites. I know it’s not exactly legal, but there are tons of free places that host videos from the paid ones. Anyway, I got in the habit of checking those sites every day before going to bed.”
He even had a favorite one.
“It pirated and reposted new videos from popular production companies, and I went there pretty often. The layout was kind of unique… Most websites recommend content under the frame that plays the video, but this one had a comment section.”
A added that his assumption regarding this layout was pure speculation based on his background as an engineer.
“These kinds of websites operate in a legal gray area, and they might have to suddenly shut down one day. So the administrators don’t put much effort into the actual site itself. They typically just adapt some framework from another site because it’s easier than building everything from scratch. So I suspect the comment section wasn’t built by the company operating the site—it just came with the framework they borrowed. I mean, what weirdo wants to start chatting in the comments after watching pirated porn?”
Backing up his claim, the comment sections were mostly empty, aside from the rare complaint like The video cuts off halfway or Upload something new instead of this old crap. Those remarks never got a response from the site’s administrators, either, so it was unlikely the feature was meant to be used.
But one day, A stumbled across an unusual comment.
“It was under the debut video for a new actress from one of my favorite companies. I was really excited to find it, and after watching it, I scrolled down for some reason and saw the comment.”
You’re very cute. Would you like to come to my place?
“At first, I just figured some old guy who didn’t understand how the internet works accidentally commented on the video. But something about it felt off, and it stayed with me.”
A month or so later, A found another new video on the site featuring the same actress.
“I watched it, thinking it was pretty quick for her to be putting out a second video. And then I noticed this one had a comment, too.”
Please come to my place. I have persimmons.
“My gut told me it was the same person. Obviously, no actress is going to read the comments on a site like this. The whole thing was weird, and it kind of unnerved me.”
After that, every time a new video featuring the same actress was uploaded to the site, A would find a similar comment. Since most of the comment sections were totally empty, the strange messages were easy to spot.
“I started looking forward to them, and whenever there was a new video with that actress, I’d check the comments.”
That continued for several months. Eventually, the site uploaded another video featuring the actress in question, and the following comment was posted:
Come to the mountain. I have persimmons.
A’s boss had yelled at him at work that day, and according to A, a dark curiosity took hold of his mind.
“I figured I’d play a little prank.”
So A replied.
Come to the mountain. I have persimmons.
Thank you for always commenting on my videos! This is [the actress’s name]. Where do you live?
Simply posting the reply was enough to satisfy A. He went to bed and completely forgot about what he’d done.
But later, when he saw a new video featuring the same actress, he remembered. There was a comment below the video.
Why haven’t you come? I’ve been waiting for a long time.
“I panicked and went back to the previous video, the one where I’d replied to the guy’s comment. He’d answered me.”
Come to the mountain. I have persimmons.
Thank you for always commenting on my videos! This is [the actress’s name]. Where do you live?
--. [Redacted because it is a real address.]
“It included his street number and everything. I couldn’t believe he was that serious. It dawned on me that I’d gotten involved with a real weirdo.”
Unnerved, A looked up the address on a map.
“I wasn’t intending to do anything. I just wanted to see where this weirdo lived.”
The location shocked him.
“It wasn’t a house—it was a shrine. Not only that, it was a really old one way out in the boonies. I checked the street view, and it showed the place. It was on a little mountain. There was a beat-up torii gate next to the road at the base, with stairs leading up to the shrine grounds. Even the main building was run down, so I figured the place was abandoned.
“I didn’t want anything more to do with it, so I stopped going to that website. But for whatever reason, I did check back once. It just so happened a new video with that same actress had been uploaded…”
And beneath the video was the following comment:
Be my bride.