The mother kept jumping and wailing until a police car and an ambulance arrived. When they took down her child, all the life had drained from his face.
The police took the mother to the station. No elementary school–aged kid could hang himself from such a tall tree without a platform, and there was no platform. Eventually, though, the newspapers labeled it a suicide.
Someone else provided us with additional details, this time about the mother.
The family at the center of the incident lived close to the elementary school.
The father passed away soon after the son was born, so the mother and child were the only ones living in the house.
She was very friendly, if a little weird, and neighbors whispered that she was part of some weird religion. But she never caused any trouble.
After her son killed himself, people who ran into her around town said she seemed very depressed, which is understandable.
A couple of months later, though, she started acting strange.
She would appear in town, excitedly talking to anyone she saw.
The magazines and talk shows on the subject seemed to find the suicide explanation dubious, and they raised various other theories, such as murder, bullying, and abuse. Because of that, the other people in town felt sorry for the mother and continued to interact with her.
But sometime after that, she started putting up strange sticker-like talismans on the walls and windows of her house. One day, a neighbor stopped by with the local circular, and when she opened the front door, they could see that the wall, floor, and ceiling were completely covered with them.
When the mother ran out of space in her house, she started sticking the talismans on telephone poles and community bulletin boards around town. Eventually, she started just handing them out to people walking down the street.
She’d say things like “A great discovery!” or “Blessings upon you!”
She’d completely lost her mind.
Not too long after, she was found hanging in her house.
If you remember, I mentioned that one story didn’t make it into the books.
That was the story about her house.
After the woman died there, the house became abandoned. Locals started calling it the Talisman House, and rumors circulated that it was haunted by a female ghost in a red coat.
The child’s mother had often worn a red coat.
Naturally, I couldn’t include anything about a vacant house that’s still standing. Even if I wanted to, the story would be too similar to real events, and that would cause an ethical problem.
So I shelved it.
I think the mother was probably the inspiration behind the Jumping Woman story that wound up in the book.
I didn’t include this detail, but all the kids said that the Jumping Woman wore red clothes. So both the clothes and her jumping resemble the mother.
I debated whether to include the story about Akira, too. But after talking with O, we decided to go ahead with it. I changed the name to Akio or Akito and left out the part about him killing himself.
I have a little more information about Akira, too. Adding it to the nine mysteries would have made things unnecessarily complicated, so I separated it out into another story.
All the rumors said that Akira was offered to Mashiro-san as a sacrifice.
Yes, yes. That very same Mashiro-san mentioned in the nine mysteries.
I think that one’s based on the horror story called Cow Head. It’s one of those stories where anyone who finds out what the monster looks like dies, so no one knows the exact details. And the horror repeats itself.
One of the kids I interviewed said that, according to his older brother, Akira died as a sacrifice.
Mashiro-san found another student, and they made Akira take their place.
That might be what started the rumors about Akira killing himself because of bullying.
Oh, one more thing. More than one student from that elementary school killed themselves.
According to what I heard, there was another student besides Akira.
That death was buried in the local papers and never received the same level of attention as Akira’s. That was partly because another major story at the time overshadowed it, and party because it was more obviously a suicide.
A girl jumped to her death from the roof of a building in the same complex where Akira killed himself. It happened a couple of years after Akira’s death. Sometimes one suicide can trigger another, you know.
Does she have a scary story about her? No, she doesn’t.
There weren’t a lot of witnesses, so people didn’t talk about it as much.
But people say she killed herself because she became friends with Akira, and he ate her.
It seems strange to say he ate her when she died of suicide. But rumors are just like that, I guess.
Following Akira’s death, the story I called Akito and the Phone Booth spread, and people say the girl who killed herself called Akira and made a wish.
If a scary story emerged every time someone died, then we would expect the number of school mysteries to increase in tandem. Instead, like what happened with Mashiro-san, it makes more sense for the new story to get blended into a more familiar one. But the one about Akira wound up becoming its own thing.
I mostly stayed true to the information I got from the students about Akira and his mother, but I did exaggerate some of the details.
If the witnesses really all went missing, then who’s telling the tales? Ha-ha.
That’s all I know about .
What do I want from you? Yes, well… I said I wanted ideas for my next project, but the truth is, there’s nothing I want to ask you.
I came here to warn you, as a fellow writer.
O shared some of the details with me. There are scary stories about told all over Japan. Some people have died. It sounds like the mother and child I just told you about are somehow related.
If that’s true, then this is quite a frightening story.
No, I’m not saying I doubt you.
That’s not what I mean. It’s a matter of perception.
I still don’t believe in ghosts. But I don’t want to hear anything more about this case.
The reason? It’s simple. Because I don’t want to change my worldview.
If you tell me something that makes it obvious ghosts exist, then I won’t know how to handle them in the future.
Let’s say that ghosts, or something like them, are really out there. At the very least, they’re definitely harmful to humans. Maybe they’re like the coronavirus.
What if, as soon as they gain a foothold, they start attacking randomly, with no sense or logic to their actions? Some people might escape, but others will die.
If it turns out ghosts are like that, then I’ve spent my whole career putting my readers in danger.
And I can’t accept that. I refuse to let that be the case.
So, with that in mind, I want to give you a warning.
Listen to the ramblings of this old lady.
If you don’t believe in something, it’s as if that thing doesn’t exist.
I don’t believe in ghosts.
But you think that ghosts are involved in this thing you’re investigating, right? And you want to uncover the truth.
What I was doing—looking into the roots of elementary school horror stories—is the same as what you’re doing. But our objectives are different.
Take my advice and stop.
As the old saying goes, “Ghosts are nothing but wilted pampas grass.”
If this ghost turns out to be nothing but wilted pampas grass, what a relief that would be. But what will you do if it turns out to be something else?
When I looked into it, this story of the Jumping Woman and her child turned out to be simple rumors born from a shocking incident where a mother and son committed suicide. That was the pampas grass masquerading as a ghost, and I found it. But what are you trying to find?
…So you’re not going to give up?
Okay. Well, if you’re that determined, then I won’t stop you.
In that case, I’ll tell you one more thing.
To be honest, I know a family that died at the dam in .
This was six or seven years ago. And it was murder.
The husband worked as a designer at one of my publishers. He was still young, but he created wonderful work, and he even designed some of my book covers. He lived in Nagano, but we got on well and would have dinner together whenever he came to Tokyo.
Apparently, he pushed his wife and daughter off the side of the dam.
The police conducted a thorough investigation, but ultimately labeled it a murder-suicide, concluding that he killed his wife and daughter but couldn’t go through with killing himself.
I don’t believe that at all. He loved his wife and daughter deeply.
He and his wife spent years trying to get pregnant but never could. They discussed adoption and eventually took in a little girl. They loved her as if she was their own—maybe even more. He often showed me pictures of her. She was very cute.
I’m a single old lady, but hearing him talk about her, I started to think of her as a sort of grandchild. He kept saying he would bring her along the next time he came to Tokyo…
Sometimes weird coincidences happen. But it was still a coincidence. That’s how I view it, anyway. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
…By the way, what about you? Are you married? Oh, so you’re single. Many people are in this industry. I’m not one to talk, of course.
What? Oh, I see. You’re divorced. That’s pretty common these days.
Are you eating enough? It’s hard when you live alone without anyone to take care of you. It sounds like you’re not. Your complexion is pale, too. You can’t buy all your meals at convenience stores, you know. Thinking about horror stories all day must be depressing. I know someone who’s really nice.
Oh, sorry. I’m overstepping. When you’re my age, you get nosy.