/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>44587847
My eyes opened. The darkness around me it was as thick as dark bedsheets. No matter how long I sat down, sleep would not take me again. Guess I was waking up early this day. As I sat up, I heard something faint from outside. My ears perked, I waited to hear it again. It sounded off again, the voice of a young girl, too indistinct to understand. My gut told me to investigate, a young girl shouldn’t be wondering the streets at night. Quietly, I slipped on my shoes and tiptoed out the door and onto the street. I knew that youkai got active at night, so it could be any number of things. Could be some of the youkai hiding here were meeting up. Maybe one from outside the village had managed to break in and was wandering the streets. Or it could be that a human was convinced by a new friend she made to sneak out at night at see them. I had to investigate. I patted myself down for my ofuda then remembered that I had just gotten out of bed. I could go back and gather up some gear, but then my lead would be long gone. I was going into this with just the clothes on my back. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw a bit of movement on the other end of the street.

I set aloft, floating just off the ground as I sped down the street and turned a corner. I could just see the silhouette of a girl running away. “Hey!” I said as I tried to keep my voice down. Possible danger or not, it still wasn’t very neighborly to start yelling at this time of night. The girl spun around and waved to me before speeding off again. Oh she was up to no good, I could tell. But no matter how much I chased her, I could never seem to catch up. She always seem to keep the same distance between us even on straightaways, and ducked around corners or used side streets to turn to shake me off. The chase ended at one of the streets. She was nowhere to be seen. As I started to consider just heading back home, I saw the curtains to a sake shop waving heavily. There she saw. I ducked inside the sake shop, looking around. I wanted to end this as quickly as I could, I didn’t want to caught breaking into places at night. “Come on out and tell me what you’re doing” I said with an annoyed whisper. I glanced around the shop, ready for anything. If this was a setup for an attack, the enemy could be hiding anywhere. The darkness and all the blind spots created by the shelves could easily conceal someone. I didn’t have to worry about that, as I tripped around something.

Grumbling to myself, I soon relized to myself what I tripped over was large and fleshy. My blood froze and I spun around, the stench of blood hitting my nose. Here was the girl I was chasing, dead on the floor, her chest torn open, matted with blood. She was definitely a human, not that it mattered in this state. The stench of it all, her eyes frozen up, she was in pieces-who could have done this? She was alive just a few seconds ago, why? I struggled to keep it together then a chorus of cheers broke out. A stool was hollering. A gaggle of sake cups were giggling. A broom in the corner was repeating “Yeah!” A mountain of voices crashed down on me. This many tsukumogami shouldn’t be possible. What was going on here? I didn’t have much time to think as new voices joined in, this time from outside. People calling out, talking among themselves. Though the curtains at the entrance I saw the glow of the lantern. All this comutution woke people up. If I were found here then It would be bad. “Help! Murder!” screamed a moneybox. The first thing I tried to do was shush it, but the voices and glow of the lantern grew closer. I ran out to the back.

I heard the back door fly open. The murderer was escaping! I saw a cloaked figure stumble across the ground. I flew after them and slammed them into the ground. It was the best I could do in my state. Their head slammed into the ground with a wet crack. I started to kick them in the ribs, wanting them to stay them, my mind only finished with thoughts of punishing them. Their cries grew weaker and weaker until they were just soft moans. I felt relief wash over me. I had stopped them with my bare hands. It felt almost good. But I had to see who they were. With some effort, I put my hands under them and rolled them over so I could see the face of

“Dad!?”

My eyes bolted open. Sunlight was streaming through the window. My legs were all tangled up in my sheets. My brain took a while to adjust and figure out the truth. A nightmare, one that I couldn’t get any meaning out of at that. I sleepily wondered if I could complain about the state of my dreams to anyone, but I shook it off. It was the start of another day, after all.