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“I do not think this is a good idea,” Kiyoshiro muttered.
“I think it is a perfect idea, darling!” Jellymon was once again hugging his neck. “Come on. You are not that scared, are you?”
“I… I am never scared,” Kiyoshiro managed to press foreward, though his voice betrayed himself a liar.
He really did not like this. He did not like how he had once more ended up in this situation. Scary Digimon were one thing, but why did the others have to actually seek out spooky things.
“But I thought you wanted to do traditional Japanese things, Kiyoshiro-kun,” Ruli said teasingly. “What is more Japanese than Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai?” She was lighting more candles, as they had no proper traditional lanterns.
“I was thinking more of highschool things,” Kiyoshiro muttered. “Like, swimming suits and going to a Maid café and…”
“I can dress up as a maid, darling,” Jellymon offered, but Kiyoshiro did not answer.
“I think telling ghost stories is kinda fun,” Hiro said.
Gammamon hummed, stuffing his face with chocolate.
In the end, Ruli seemed to be happy. “A hundred candles. There we go.”
“This is a house fire waiting to happen,” Kiyoshiro muttered.
Ruli danced over to the light switch to turn of the light in the room – down in the basement of the library, where they were sitting right now. It was really all very unfortunate, if someone was asking Kiyoshiro. Nobody was asking him though.
The darkness was strange and spooky. Especially because it was not really dark. The lights of the candles were flickering all around them, making the shadows feel alive.
Kiyoshiro shivered. He really did not like this.
“Alright.” Ruli lowered her voice. “Who wants to tell the first story?”
Kiyoshiro did not. He did not like ghost stories at all.
“I can,” Hiro said, smiling as he did.
Ruli grinned. She sat down cross legged before leaning against Angoramon, who wrapped his arms around her. “Go ahead.”
“Hmm, okay.” Hiro thought about it for a moment. “This is the story of the haunted Kidokawa mall in a place I once visited.” He lowered his voice, just as Ruli had done. “In the abandoned corridors of Kidokawa Mall, a little girl's spirit wanders, searching for her mother. No one knows what has happened to her that her spirit got confined in that place, but her laughter echoes through empty stores, and her small footsteps are heard on creaky escalators.”
Kiyoshiro could feel himself shiver at the thought. Little girl ghosts were kinda the worst.
“Those who dare to enter the mall at dusk report seeing her, dressed in a faded sundress, beckoning them to follow. Few return to tell the tale. The mall's few remaining tenants whisper warnings: ‘Don't go alone, or the little girl will make you play hide-and-seek… forever.’”
Kiyoshiro whimpered at the idea. No. He did not like this at all.
Meanwhile Hiro turned to blow out the first candle.
“I like that one,” Ruli said. “I have been to an abandoned mall before. They kinda feel spooky.”
“I would rather not go to such a place,” Kiyoshiro muttered.
“We will see.” Ruli smiled. “Who wants to go next?”
“Me! Me!” Jellymon raised her hand. “Let me tell a story. For darling!”
Ruli giggled. “Yes, sure. Go ahead, Jellymon-sama.”
“Alright!” Jellymon flew through the air, before floating in the middle of them all. “I overheard this one before. It is the story of the Waiting Girl!” She grinned. “On rainy evenings, a ghostly figure in a yellow dress appears on the streets of Shibuya, searching for her boyfriend. It is said that once upon a time she died tragically in a car crash, while she was walking to her first date, and she never got to see her boyfriend that day. If you are a young man on your way there at night, you might find yourself being approached by the girl, asking if you are her lost love.” She floated closer to Kiyoshiro now, caressing his chin with her finger. “Answer incorrectly, and she'll follow you home, forever waiting for a response that will never come…” She gave her voice a tragic tone.
“Please…” Kiyoshiro whimpered.
Jellymon just grinned, before blowing up the next candle. “You want to go next yourself, Ruli-chan?”
Ruli laughed. “I might as well… Let me think which one to go with.” She rubbed her chin. “Ah, right. This one is fitting. It is said that in the dusty basement of Kyoto Library, an ancient computer hums to life when no one's around. Its screen glows with an otherworldly light, drawing in curious souls. Those who use it become entranced, and when nobody is looking they will just…” She moved her hands dramatically. “Disappear! Never to be seen again. Some say the computer consumes their minds, adding to its dark knowledge. Others claim to have seen the faces of the damned reflected in its screen. Beware, for once you log in, you'll never log out again.”
“Don’t even try to make computers scary too,” Kiyoshiro muttered.
“We deal with Digimon all the time,” Hiro noted. He blew out a candle in Ruli’s stead given that she seemed to be comfortable leaning against Angoramon. “And they are Digital, right?”
“But a computer that is evil on its own is worse,” Kiyoshiro said.
“How about you offer a story then?” Ruli noted.
“I…” Kiyoshiro crossed his arms. “Whatever. Uhm…” He did not want to think of any spooky stories, really. He did not want to remember those he had heard either. “Uhm… So… O-oh no…” He whimpered at the memories of spooky Digimon. No. He did not want to talk about that. Rather talk about old anime episodes. Right! “Okay, so my friends and I went camping, and one by one, we started disappearing!” He took a deep breath. “But, uh, it turns out, one guy just wandered off to find a better phone signal, another got lost chasing a squirrel, and the third... well, he just really needed to use the bathroom and didn't want to disturb us. Yeah, that's it. Everything's fine!” He laughed and blew out a candle, while everyone else was just looking at him unimpressed.
“You understand how this game works, right?” Ruli asked.
“Darling. It needs to be spooky scary stories,” Jellymon said. “Spooky,” she whispered in his ears. “With paranormal things happening.”
“I found that spooky enough!”
“I am pretty sure that happened on an anime when I was a kid,” Hiro muttered.
“That does not matter!” Kiyoshiro waved it off. “I told my story, okay?”
The other laughed.
“Can I tell a story too?” Gammamon asked.
Ruli smiled. “Of course. Go ahead.”
“Okay!” Gammamon was beaming. “This really happened, you know? So there's this rat, right? It stole a chunk of my precious chocolate, and somehow, it gained powers!” He jumped out of Hiro’s lap to go into their middle. “Now, it's stealing chocolate from everyone in town. People wake up to find their beloved snacks gone, with only a trail of wrappers leading to the sewer. They call it the ‘Chocolate Bake Nezumi’. And I am afraid it will steal all the chocolate in the entire city!”
Hiro was chuckling. “That does sound terrifying.”
“I hate the thought of rats with powers…” Kiyoshiro muttered.
Jellymon looked at him. “Really, darling? Even this is getting to you?”
“Leave me alone…”
Ruli grinned. “It is alright, Kiyoshiro. Only ninety-five stories for you to go.”
“Can we just… not?” Kiyoshiro asked.
“But it is fun,” Gammamon exclaimed.
“I do not think it is.”
“I think it is fun as well, darling.” Jellymon flew around him. “And you would not disagree with me, would you, darling?”
“Of course not, Jellymon-sama.” He gave a deep sigh. It was really not understandable to him why anyone would do this to themselves. Ninety-five more stories? He hated that thought!
“So,” Jellymon asked. “Who wants to go next?”
“I can.” Angoramon raised his hand. “I know an old story of the Samurai Wabisuke, and his lady love Emiko. It is said this happened during the Edo era. Lady Emiko had been promised to Wabisuke when the two had been young, and their hearts had been connected ever since, but one day…”
Kiyoshiro was not sure how long it took, but at some point the room was noticeably darker. Only some of the candles were burning now, just as Ruli was speaking.
“But in the moment she picked that peach, she could feel something shift. Nobody had told her about the curse of the forest and the forbidden tree, and before she knew it her body had turned into wood. She was a tree herself now, unable to ever return to her beloved brother again. As she is standing in this forest now, her tears turn into blossoms that keep falling year around, and if you ever go to the forest and see a blossoming tree, know that this was her fate long ago…” She blew out a candle.
Kiyoshiro was sitting with his back to the wall, having his head buried in a pillow. He really did not like any of this.
“I have another one,” Hiro offered. “This is said to have happened just nearby. See, where the Heitama Office building is, there once had been a small shrine dedicated to a smaller kitsune kami. But as they erected the building they destroyed that shrine. But they did not know that the kami was still there. So now it is haunting the place. Night after night it sneaks through the office as a shadow, and whenever some office worker is there too late, they will disappear, consumed by the rage of a spirit that was not respected in its place.”
Kiyoshiro sighed. Why was he still here?
“Can I tell another one?” Gammamon asked.
“Of course,” Ruli said.
“Uhm, okay. So… In the dormitory. There is a room they are not using. And I know why! You see, the boy who lived there. He vanished! Because the shadows under the bed… they are really hungry shadow! And whatever boy is going to live there, he will eventually be eaten by them. They had several boys go there before. And none of them survived!”
Again Kiyoshiro whimpered. “How did you…”
“That was a really good story, Gammamon,” Hiro said.
The Digimon grinned widely. “Thank you, Hiro!”
The boy lifted his Digimon partner up so Gammamon could blow out one of the candles as well.
It was quite dark by now, and as Kiyoshiro looked up he only counted four more of the candles. When those were blown out, he would finally be free – but it would also be dark. And he really was not sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
“I want to tell another one,” Jellymon offered.
“Go ahead.” Ruli sipped some of the juice she had brought along.
“Alright. So this is the story of a Starcrossed Curse!” Jellymon floated around quite animatedly. “There was this model in Tokyo with the name of Yukiko. She was beautiful of course, like me! But she was from a poor family, though she was getting by just fine now. Yukiko fell in love with Tomaru, the heir of one of these business empires. But there was a problem. Tomaru was already said to be married to another woman, Rumi, who was from a well-off family. But he could not shake the romantic feelings for Yukiko, and the two of them planned to run away. But then…” Jellymon made a dramatic pause. “Rumi found out about the affair and in a jealous rage she murdered poor Yukiko in the dead of night. Tomaru was heartbroken when it seemed to him that Yukiko had disappeared. But oh, the angry spirit of Yukiko lingered. And on the evening of the wedding, when Tomaru and Rumi were supposed to marry, it is said that all that was seen was a flash, before the two vanished, their spirits drawn to the afterlife, so that Yukiko could be with her beloved forever…” With that she floated over to the forth to last candle and blew it out. “I would haunt people too for you, darling.” She grinned at Kiyoshiro.
“That is good to know…” He sighed. When would it be finally over?
“I can also offer another one,” Angoramon noted.
“Of course.” Ruli leaned against the Digimon once more, smiling at it. “Go ahead.”
“This is a story of the small village of Bashigai, that by now has been fully abandoned. Three hundred years ago a hungry spirit was haunting the area but the priests managed to seal it away. Ever since the seal had been kept up by prayers of the local priests and miko, and the sacrifices given to the temple by the people of Bashigai. But you know how it is…” Angoramon was speaking with an even voice and somehow that made it all even worse. “The people move away from the countryside and eventually there was no one there to bring sacrifices to the temple. So the last miko living there now all on her own knew what to do. As the spirit was raging against its seal she took a knife to her chest and paid the ultimate sacrifice to keep the spirit from escaping. Yet, even with her blood keeping the spirit in check, it will just be a matter of time until it will burst free to consume the world of the living.” He reached out to blow up the next candle.
By now it was so dark in the room. Especially like this.
It had started to rain outside, and somehow that made the atmosphere even worse. Kiyoshiro just wanted to go back to the dormitory – even though he knew he would be unable to sleep.
“Two more stories left,” Gammamon asked. “What happens when all the candles are out?”
“Well, normally people only actually tell ninety-nine stories,” Hiro said.
“Why though?”
“Because when the hundredth story gets told, a spirit from the stories will arrive and eat everyone,” Kiyoshiro whined.
“That makes you wonder, right?” Ruli asked. “If there is any truth to it.”
“I do not want to wonder that,” Kiyoshiro muttered.
“Well, I have a story ninety-nine for you. I read this one online.” She cleared her throat. “This happened recently. There were three girls in Osaka, who had been friends as long as they could remember. But due to her parents jobs, one of those girls had to move to Kitakyushu. The girls had a tearful goodbye, but were of the firm belief they would see each other again. But this belief was shaken. The girl who moved to Kitakyushu, she did not make new friends at her new school. She was bullied so relentlessly that one day, she jumped from a bridge to end it all. And her bond was strong enough, that her two friends knew it the moment it happened. They found out what happened and planned a gruesome revenge. They found the girls responsible for their dear friend’s death, and they made sure those would never bully anyone ever again. Once the revenge was done, they too jumped from the same bridge, as so they could be reunited with their dear friend.” She blew out the second to last candle.
“I hate Japanese ghost stories,” Kiyoshiro whimpered. “It is so much death and gruesome stuff. And suicide in all variations. And so many different spirits…”
“I mean, that is the point of ghost stories, right?” Ruli asked. She looked over to the last burning candle, the light of which felt almost lost in the rather big room that was now so fully dark.
“At least American ghost stories were more predictable,” Kiyoshiro said. “They were not… like this!”
“Were they?” Angoramon asked.
“Yes. I mean, half of them are just stories about serial killers either way. But even the ghost stories. They are just… more predictable. Not good. I do not like them. But… You know. It is more predictable – and at least not every street has some ghost story waiting to be discovered. It is more a few places. And it is rare that it happens to a big place at once.”
“I have heard there are ghost towns, though,” Hiro noted.
“But not literal ghost towns. Just some towns were people found gold or something and then the gold veins were done with and people move away. There is only a couple of places with real ghost stories associated. I mean, I know that there was this place in Massachusetts where they killed a lot of women during the witch hunts. And you know? The witch hunts, those were superstition and so everyone who got killed was innocent. The story said that the spirits of the women killed in this place swore revenge, and so one night they just came to the city and took everyone away. There are historical sources that say that indeed one day a postman came to the town and found it fully abandoned, but things looked as if people had just disappeared in their sleep.” He shivered. “It probably had some sort of good reason, of course, but they never…”
The last candle flickered, and then it went out.
Kiyoshiro screamed, as outside lightning lit up the sky and a giggle echoed through the library. “Noooo…” He really, really hated ghost stories. And now… well, he was going to die, wasn’t he?
“A Digimon!” Gammamon screamed.
“Be careful!”
“I will be!”
